Entergy program focused on reliability and resiliency
Mud Lake to Big Lake Road Entergy project
Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - One of the biggest obstacles facing Southwest Louisiana families following a hurricane is days without electricity. Now, Entergy is working to alleviate that concern with a new program focused on reliability and resiliency.
“Entergy is building a large scale project that we’ve had in planning for reliability purposes and also to enable growth. These types of projects strengthen our grid and strengthen what I call the Interstate or the high voltage system for power into our area,” said Entergy communications director, Margaret Harris.
Part of this large scale project will include an additional power source onto the grid from the east.
“And that’s a benefit for all of our customers as a part of this project, we are rebuilding a line and making it more resilient,” Harris said.
Entergy representative Margaret Harris said this line could be beneficial in the event of a large-scale event like another hurricane.
Another part of what Entergy is calling the mud-lake to big lake project is a new Calcasieu River crossing. As a part of the reliability project, a couple of new waterway crossings will be built. For resiliency, the windspeed rating has been increased for the following structures to 175mph:
- Calcasieu crossing with very tall crossing structures off Burton Shipyard Rd and Tank Farm Rd – The foundation work on this crossing will begin in 4th Quarter 2022 with structure and line work targeted for the crossing in 1st Quarter 2023
- Intracoastal crossing – 175mph windspeed rating.
- Choupique Bayou crossing structures will also be built with an upgrade in windspeed rating to 142mph.
“And that basically will go from the Burton Shipyard Rd area over to the Tank Farm Rd area where we’ll have a new Big Lake substation on the east side of Calcasieu,” Harris said.
If you’ve driven down Highway 27 recently, you’ve probably seen crews conducting high voltage work. Well, that’s another part of this project. There is currently visible high voltage line work along Highway 27 south of Sulphur to north Hackberry.
“We have some wooden high voltage structures that are being replaced with steel. This hardens our system, makes it more resilient. More resilient lines are beneficial to our customers and you can see evidence of that on our high voltage system and we’ve seen that proven over time,” Harris said.
The project planning was taking place before the 2020 hurricanes. Harris said the improvements could be a game changer during any future storms, but will also provide more reliability on an even regular day.
On the east side, clearing has taken place for the project along Tank Farm Rd., and foundation work is underway for the Big Lake substation. Approximately 150 poles/structures will be used for this project.
The project will be benefiting customers by June of 2023, ahead of next year’s hurricane season.
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