Damage from Hurricane Ida to Entergy Corp. electrical facilities totals up to $2.6 billion, the utility company announced Sept. 21.
Most of those costs were incurred by subsidiaries Entergy Louisiana LLC and Entergy New Orleans LLC after the Category 4 storm struck the southeastern U.S. on Aug. 29, causing more than 1 million customer outages. Entergy said in its announcement that it has restored power to about 98% of its customers, with the remainder of those who can take power to be restored by Sept. 29.
The preliminary cost estimate for repair and/or replacement of electrical facilities damaged by the storm are estimated at about $2 billion to $2.4 billion for Entergy Louisiana and about $120 million to $150 million for Entergy New Orleans, the company said.
Revenues to be reduced, guidance affirmed
Entergy also expects utility revenues in 2021 "to be adversely affected" because of the outages from the hurricane. The company's initial estimate of lost non-fuel revenue is about $75 million to $85 million, with most of the impact again in its Louisiana subsidiaries' service areas, about $65 million to $70 million for Entergy Louisiana and about $10 million to $15 million for Entergy New Orleans.
The company said it expects the loss to be "partly offset by lower operation and maintenance expenses."
The utility also affirmed its 2021 adjusted earnings per share guidance range of $5.80 to $6.10 and its 2022 and 2023 adjusted earnings per share outlooks of $6.15 to $6.45 and $6.55 to $6.85, respectively.
The company's liquidity "is sufficient to meet its current obligations," Entergy said.
Three separate storms that struck Entergy service territories in Louisiana and Texas between August and October 2020 resulted in roughly $2 billion to $2.3 billion in damages to grid infrastructure.
Totaling up the damage
In its Sept. 21 damage assessment, the company said storm damage across its system included more than 30,500 distribution poles, nearly 6,000 transformers, nearly 36,500 spans of distribution wire, about 500 transmission structures, more than 225 substations and more than 210 transmission lines.
"Ida caused substantially more distribution pole damage than previous storms," Entergy said in its update.
On "key lines" in coastal areas, poles are being replaced with "more resilient" Class 1 grade distribution poles that can be configured to withstand more than 130-mph winds.
About 27,000 workers from 41 states contributed to the recovery effort, Entergy said.
Entergy on Sept. 21 also disclosed "four preliminary options" for future ownership and operation of Entergy New Orleans, including divesting the utility, one day before a meeting with the New Orleans City Council to examine its performance during and after Ida, which caused a citywide blackout.