JACKSON, Mississippi-Entergy Mississippi plans to invest nearly $67 million into infrastructure and utility upgrades, the company announced Wednesday in a release.
Officials with the company said the goal behind Entergy Mississippi, Inc.’s $66.5 million-plus investment in infrastructure projects is designed to make electrical service even safer and more reliable.
“Infrastructure upgrades aren’t the sexiest thing we do, but they are one of the most important,” said Robbin Jeter, Entergy Mississippi vice president of customer service. “A strong and modern power grid is every bit as vital as water, sewer and road infrastructure.”
“Think of it this way,” he added. “Transmission and distribution lines are the ‘roads’ that take electricity from the generating plants to homes and businesses. Our substations are like electrical ‘intersections’ that tie the transmission and distribution systems together.”
Entergy Mississippi manages more than 20,000 miles of electrical lines, 291 substations, five natural gas-powered generating plants and one nuclear plant in the state. Much of the upgrades will impact infrastructure that has been in place for more than 60 years.
Much of this infrastructure has been in place for more than 60 years.
Some of the improvements the company is making are:
* replacing some wooden poles with stronger composite material,
* changing from copper to aluminum conductors,
* increasing tree-trimming and other vegetation management efforts and
* building new distribution and transmission lines to deliver electricity to growing industries and communities.
“With residential rates that are among the lowest in the country, now is a good time to start these important service improvements and technological upgrades as the impact on customer bills will be lowered,” said Jeter.
