Entergy highlights investments in technology in 2017 integrated report

Entergy Corporation recently released its 2017 Integrated Report, “Utility Reimagined,” which provides an overview of the company’s financial, operational, environmental and social performance in 2017.

“Our stakeholders are bound by one common expectation: sustainable value,” Leo Denault, Entergy chairman and CEO, said. “We have taken steps to reduce risk by completing our plan to exit the merchant business and we have strengthened our core utility business. Entergy is well-positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise and leverage new technologies to transform how we deliver sustainable value to our stakeholders tomorrow.”

The company described its investments in new technologies and capabilities, such as its plan to deploy advanced meters in 2019 and its current efforts to implement the required IT infrastructure,
communications network and meter data management systems.

“Over the next three years, we will place into service new generation plants, powered by some of the latest technologies, which offer better fuel efficiency, lower carbon emissions and require less water than the older units they replace,” the report said. The company currently has three combined-cycle gas
turbine plants underway.

“Technology advances are making renewable energy increasingly cost-competitive,” the report stated, adding that Entergy was in the process of selecting and implementing renewable energy projects in Arkansas, Louisiana and New Orleans.

Entergy also detailed its efforts to replace aging infrastructure with new, more efficient generation sources. In 2017, major new transmission lines were under construction in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The company also said its largest transmission project to date, the Lake Charles transmission project in Louisiana, is on track for completion in 2018.

Additionally, the report describes Entergy’s strategies to acquire, retain and develop employees as well as its community improvement programs and partnerships and economic development initiatives.

The report also includes Entergy’s new industry reporting template, which aligns with the Edison Electric Institute’s guide for sharing key performance indicators for stakeholders of electric utilities.