JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey announced a review of Entergy Mississippi, LLC’s restoration efforts in response to the recent widespread outages from severe storms in June.
Entergy Mississippi experienced a significant number of outages, which left tens of thousands without power for multiple days, and some for more than a week.
In light of these events, the Commission deemed it necessary to examine the utility’s response efforts and ensure that actions are taken to prevent similar situations in the future.
“It is our responsibility as regulators to ensure that our utilities and power providers are prepared and capable of swiftly restoring power and providing necessary communications during times of outages,” Bailey said. “Entergy Mississippi’s recent widespread outages have raised operational concerns and caused hardships among customers, and this review aims to address those concerns and identify any areas for improvement.”
According to Bailey, Entergy Mississippi’s response to the Commission is due in six-weeks and will include an assessment of the timeline of events, protocols and procedures of power restoration, communication with affected customers, and overall preparedness and planning, while keeping the safety of customers and line workers as a top priority.
The review process will also include soliciting feedback from customers who were directly affected by the outages. Residents and businesses can share their experiences by emailing emlresponse@psc.ms.gov.
“The Commission emphasizes the importance of transparency and accountability in ensuring reliable and affordable utility services,” Bailey said. “This review aims to identify any shortcomings and strengthen practices that will help Entergy Mississippi better serve the community before, during and after emergencies. Our findings will be made available to the public.”
“We look forward to the opportunity to provide the Commission with a deeper understanding of the challenges that last month’s treacherous weather brought into our service area, and the strategies we quickly implemented to avoid further delay to our customers. We have an intensive storm evaluation process, and we are working to correct issues experienced by the systems that identify where outages exist and provide customers with information about their outage and estimated restoration timeline. As we always do, we will keep the Commission apprised through this process,” Entergy Mississippi officials said in a statement to WJTV 12 News.