Entergy restarts one Calcasieu power plant, lights back on in some areas

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - For the first time in the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Laura struck Southwest Louisiana, some in Calcasieu have electricity again.

Entergy successfully restarted one of its power plants in Calcasieu Parish Wednesday, a move that no doubt had customers eagerly checking the electric company’s outage map to see if they were one of the lucky ones.

Some residents in Sulphur and some in south Lake Charles had power restored. Power was restored to West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital, however, hopsital officials say they will remain on generator power for the next couple of days until more areas are added to Entergy’s power grid.

Entergy representatives say the restart paves the way for more power to be restored.

Initially, the plant will provide power to thousands of customers in the area predominately south of Interstate 210 and west of Lake Street, the commercial district and surrounding communities on Nelson Road to Country Club Road and a portion of the Prien area.

The Calcasieu Plant was restarted, in part, because the first of nine high-voltage transmission lines into the Lake Charles area was repaired. Customers receiving power are along undamaged or repaired paths connected to the Calcasieu Plant. Some customers may have damage to the electric equipment on the exterior of their home.

Crews restored power to approximately 2,000 customers in the communities of Toomey and Starks on Saturday.

Entergy says those with damage to their home’s exterior electric equipment should visit the Entergy Storm Center.

Beauregard Electric Co-Op (BECi) says that 10,000 meters have been restored and that on Tuesday, with the help of 1,100 linemen and 600 pieces of equipment, power was restored to 1,200 meters.

BECi Reaches Restoration Milestone

1,100 linemen work to repair 5,700 miles of line

BECi has energized substations in Anacoco Lake, DeRidder, Dry Creek, Elizabeth, Kinder, Merryville, New Llano, Oberlin, Pickering, Pitkin, Rapides and Sugartown.

Jeff Davis Electric Cooperative (JDEC) says that power has been restored to a little over 4,400 consumer-members and that five substations have been energized.

Two additional substations are almost ready to be energized however the transmission lines to those substations will take a few weeks for reconstruction. JDEC is working to secure 5-megawatt mobile generators to power up the Derouen and Charlie substations, with a target date for delivery of the mobile generator set for Friday, Sept. 11.

The following areas will benefit from the mobile generator: Derouen, north and south of Iowa (Jeff Davis Parish), and Charlie, west of Lane Road to Morganfield. As repairs are made east of Lane Road those lines will be energized.