Entergy Mississippi launched a project last year to accelerate the replacement of existing wooden transmission structures with steel or concrete poles, with the goal of replacing all wooden poles in 12 to 15 years. The replacement of the wood structures represents the majority of a $28 million annual investment Entergy Mississippi is making to harden the grid. So far, more than 1,000 aged wood structures have been replaced.
“Our customers and communities depend on us to deliver reliable service,” said Shawn Corkran, vice president of reliability, Entergy Mississippi. “We study and invest in modernizing and strengthening our grid to ensure our customers have the power they need when they need it. This involves not just replacing aging infrastructure, but also updating our equipment with materials that improve our resiliency.”
“We identified wooden transmission structures in need of replacement across the state,” said Corkran. “With these upgraded structures, we can provide a more hardened, reliable system for our customers and reduce the length of outages caused by transmission wood pole failures.”
Additional crews were brought on the system for the execution of the incremental work to replace the structures holding the lines, which will fortify the grid; these additional crews will also be available to help restore damaged transmission lines, improving the restoration times during unplanned outages or outages that may occur during storms. An investment in infrastructure now pays dividends in fewer outages and lower bills for customers today and in the decades to come.
