PINEVILLE, La. – Cleco and Entergy Louisiana customers are being served by a stronger, more resilient electric grid. The companies have completed the construction of a new 36-mile, storm-hardened transmission line that will strengthen service reliability for customers across southeast Louisiana.

The new 230 kV line stretches from Gray to Patterson on steel structures designed to withstand winds between 130 to 150 mph. Entergy Louisiana’s portion of the project, which runs for 24 miles from the Terrebonne substation near Gray to a point at Bayou Boeuf near Amelia, was completed in May of 2018. Cleco constructed the remainder of the line between the interconnection near Amelia and its Bayou Vista substation near Patterson. Work on that section of the line was complete in March of 2019. On April 17, Cleco and Entergy Louisiana worked together to successfully energize the entire line.

“The project will improve power reliability and resiliency during hurricanes for customers in south Louisiana and is the second phase of three efforts by Cleco to harden the south Louisiana bulk power system,” said Bill Fontenot, president and CEO of Cleco.  “Cleco’s first effort connected Eunice to west New Iberia.  The third, and final phase, will connect Patterson through St. Mary Parish.  These efforts will help us better serve our customers.”

“This project is one part of Entergy Louisiana’s multi-phased resiliency project that will help strengthen our grid, improve reliability and support growth for the entire state,” said Phillip May, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana. “Our partnership with Cleco on the Terrebonne to Bayou Vista project was essential to meeting today’s power demands and helps to ensure the safe and reliable delivery of energy to our customers.”

About Entergy Louisiana:   

Entergy Louisiana, LLC provides electric service to more than 1 million customers and natural gas service to more than 93,000 customers in the greater Baton Rouge area. With operations in southern, central and northeastern Louisiana, the company is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 9,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of $11 billion and nearly 13,700 employees.