JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey said he’s concerned and disappointed over Entergy Mississippi’s response efforts to the recent ongoing storm systems, which have caused widespread power outages.
Bailey said he’s received numerous complaints from residents and businesses throughout his district about the delay in restoring power.
“I am extremely frustrated and disappointed by Entergy Mississippi’s response to the recent storms,” Bailey said. “The delay in restoring power has caused significant hardship for their customers and it is unacceptable. We expect EML to take swift action to address this issue and ensure that our communities are not left in the dark for prolonged periods of time in the aftermath of future severe weather events.”
The commissioner said he’s repeatedly urged Entergy Mississippi to improve its response strategy to severe storms and take proactive measures to prevent outages. However, Bailey said the power company has failed to meet the expectations of their customers.
Bailey said his concerns include about the company include the lack of overall preparation, outsourcing of critical services, reductions in field staff, general maintenance of the grid, vegetation management, and inadequate customer service contributing to lack of customer confidence.
He wants the company to provide a detailed report on its response to the recent storms and outline steps that it will take to improve overall preparedness, response and restoration plans.
“Our job as Commissioners is to hold our utilities and power providers accountable for providing affordable and reliable service. I will continue to monitor the situation closely, take all necessary steps to ensure that EML responds to my requests, and evaluate additional measures the Commission can pursue to improve utility performance and reliability,” said Bailey.
Entergy Mississippi responded to Bailey’s comments in a statement that said, “The only focus of our 2,300 person workforce is restoring their power as quickly and safely as possible.”
Leaders with the company addressed the outages during a news conference on Sunday, June 18.
Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, said there are 180 broken poles and 38 miles of wire down.
“Our employees are actually in day eight of this. We know the recent events on Friday have gotten people’s attention, but I would remind everybody that we have been in this mode for quite some time, and we are seeing outages that we have not seen since Hurricane Katrina. The impact of this, this has been like a constant barrage of storms quite as to many out one tornadoes hit hitting many different communities throughout our area, throughout the state,” said Fisackerly.
Vice president of operations for Entergy said power near commercial areas on Interstate 55 in North Jackson should be on Sunday going into Monday. The large number of power outages in South Jackson is expected to restored on Tuesday going into Wednesday.
Entergy Mississippi leaders said they’ve assembled more than 2,000 workers from six different states to assist in repairing the damage from recent storms.
Company officials said they will continue to update their social media pages regarding the power outages. As of Monday evening, Entergy Mississippi was reporting a total of 26,053 power outages.