Entergy opens new office in Lockport

A large length of wire was stretched in front of a crowd, gathered before a new building on Thursday.

“I think we’re going to need a bigger wire,” came a voice from the group. Instead of scissors, a large set of wire cutters were employed to mark the opening of Entergy’s $8.4 million, 9,700 square-foot Lockport Service Center.

The building can be found on 4539 La. Highway 308, which allows ease of access to La. Highway 90, said Amy Martinez, Line Supervisor of the Lockport Network, and it will service the Lafourche Crossing to Grand Isle beginning Monday, December 18.

Martinez said that the center is intended to consolidate the business’ resources in one location. Prior to this center’s construction, Entergy Louisiana employees had equipment stored at three separate locations: one housed the main office, one stored transformers and other equipment, and the last yard stored poles.

“You go back to where we were in Lockport, that was spread over three different areas. So, first of all, you oftentimes had to move trucks to get another truck out of the yard. That’s not very efficient. You had to go to a different location, to go pick up supplies and materials. That’s not very efficient,” Phillip May, President and CEO of Entergy Louisiana, said, “The productivity gains, the efficiency gains, the more comfortable surroundings that we have here, all of which will lead to more productive crews, higher reliability all to the benefit of our customers. More importantly, is frankly, driving a forklift on a sidewalk to another location to pick up a piece of material is not optimal or safe.”

Entergy’s communications spokesperson, Mike Burns, said that currently plans for the old buildings are still under consideration.

The building, is designed with the intention of usage as a staging area during and after major storms, said project manager Patrick McCann. There are 7 major areas, not counting the 2 locker rooms (male and female respectively) as well as 3 private offices: training area, administrative wing, engineer office, storm room/conference room, storage room, Exercise room and a sizeable break room.

With the aforementioned goal in mind, the entire facility is elevated three and a half feet above the surrounding area. The conference room’s walls and ceiling are fully incased in reinforced concrete, with the intention of riding out the most severe weather. The furnished breakroom seats 8, sports a stove, refrigerator, microwave, and has a view of the cane field (there’s also talk of adding benches outside to enjoy the weather in permissible circumstances). The exercise room has washer and dryer connections because, as Martinez stated, it was a “lesson learned after Katrina.”

Other noteworthy announcements were made during the meeting. During a speech, May, mentioned that Entergy Louisiana will be investments of $5 billion over the next 3 years. Two new projects in the St Charles Parish and Lake Charles. The St Charles plant is projected to produce a net savings of $1.3 billion over 30-year life, “It pays for itself and enhances benefits to our customers,” he said, while the Lake Charles plant is projected to $1.3 to $1.9 million in savings.

Furthermore, Phillip May said, over the next 3 years, his company will be investing $1.2 billion in transmission in Louisiana alone. These investments are intended to interconnect new and growing industrial loads in the state, enhance reliability of the transmission system, and projects such as the Louisiana Economic Transmission Project. “we’re going to make about a $60 million investment. That project will produce almost $500 million savings for our customers. That benefit to cost ratio of 8 to 1. Clearly another great investment,” he said, “we can’t succeed unless the communities we serve succeed.”

Even with these many goals and improvements in mind, Entergy Louisiana seems not to cut corners when safety is involved, “I also want to recognize a tremendous feat by the work group here in Lockport,” Said Dennis Dawsey, Vice President of Customer Service, “in about 2 weeks they will have gone 34 years without a lost time accident… that is tremendous.” •

Entergy Office