Entergy Texas Completes MISO Integration

12/18/2013

Customers to see meaningful savings over next 10 years

BEAUMONT, Texas. – Entergy Texas, Inc. completed its integration last night into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator or MISO, setting the stage for nearly a quarter-billion dollars in projected customer savings in the first decade alone.

With Entergy’s “cutover,” MISO now stands as one of the nation’s largest regional transmission organizations, comprising a pool of electricity generators and users that stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Entergy Texas can buy, sell and transmit electricity within this giant marketplace, and pass the resulting savings along to its customers.

Entergy Texas, along with sister utilities in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, worked for more than two years to reorganize teams, processes and infrastructure to integrate into MISO. Multiple economic assessments showed that the greatest customer savings would be realized when all of the Entergy companies entered MISO together.

“This is a great move for Entergy Texas in terms of savings and benefits for our customers,” said Sallie Rainer, president and CEO of Entergy Texas. “We’re grateful to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, our MISO counterparts and hundreds of Entergy teammates and vendors for their efforts toward reaching this historic milestone.”

The Entergy utility operating companies’ entry into MISO represents a significant expansion for one of the largest regional transmission organizations. MISO created an entirely new region--the MISO South Region--along with new technology infrastructure and a new operations team to serve its members in the four states it added. It has also announced that it will build and staff a South Region operations center in Little Rock, Ark. next year.

Besides Entergy Texas, there are hundreds of other new participants in the MISO energy market. All told, the new region includes 151 transmission customers, 128 electric generating plants and 11 transmission facility owners. Independent studies have forecast that each of these sectors will realize economic value from the move to MISO.

“A regional transmission organization like MISO creates incredible economic benefits in our state and our region,” Rainer said. “Greater reliability, lower costs, and other benefits will make Texas an even more attractive environment for business expansion and relocation.”

While a lot of eyes were on the cutover inside the company and at MISO, the effort went largely unnoticed by Entergy customers.

“Despite the magnitude and impact, the cutover was--and is--completely seamless from the perspective of our customers,” said Rainer. “Now the real work begins--that of saving our customers money.”

The savings projected with the move to MISO are largely attributable to its organized power markets, which allow for a more efficient commitment and dispatch of generating plants, to economies of scale offered by an RTO of MISO’s size, and to MISO’s transmission cost allocation methodology that equitably allocates the costs of transmission projects to those receiving the benefits from those projects.

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electric service to more than 420,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2013, is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than approximately 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.

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In this news release, and from time to time, Entergy Corporation and its affiliates make certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, Entergy undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including (a) those factors discussed in this news release and in: (i) Entergy’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and (ii) Entergy’s other reports and filings made under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; (b) uncertainties associated with rate proceedings, formula rate plans and other cost recovery mechanisms; (c) uncertainties associated with efforts to remediate the effects of major storms and recover related restoration costs; (d) nuclear plant relicensing, operating and regulatory risks, including any changes resulting from the nuclear crisis in Japan following its catastrophic earthquake and tsunami; (e) legislative and regulatory actions and risks and uncertainties associated with claims or litigation by or against Entergy and its subsidiaries; and (f) economic conditions and conditions in commodity and capital markets during the periods covered by the forward-looking statements, in