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Entergy Breaks Ground on New $23M Center in Little Rock

2 min read

Entergy Inc. broke ground Monday on a new 25,000-SF, $23 million transmission operations center in southwest Little Rock.

The center, located at 13019 Vimy Ridge Road, will be one of two in Entergy’s four-state service area. The other will be located at Entergy’s campus in Jackson, Mississippi.

The project is part of Entergy’s plan to consolidate five such centers and one system operating center in cities throughout its service area. The company says the move will improve operations, enhance storm response and deal with weather risks.

The Arkansas center will consolidate facilities located in Pine Bluff and Little Rock and will house 70 employees who will be responsible for monitoring the status of the transmission system, coordinating line outages for maintenance or repair and remotely operating substation switches and breakers. 

Rick Riley, vice president of transmission for Entergy, described the new facility as a “nerve center” and said it would be a “hardened” facility able to withstand an F-5 tornado.

Entergy’s decision to consolidate services in Little Rock and Jackson represents a desire to move transmission operation centers away from the Gulf Coast where they are susceptible to storms and hurricanes. 

Entergy contracted with Redstone Construction Group Inc. of Little Rock to clear Vimy Ridge Road site for construction. Canizaro Cawthon Davis of Jackson, Mississippi, the project’s architect. Alessi Keyes Construction Co. of Maumelle is the general contractor.

Construction is scheduled to be complete by summer 2016.

Hugh McDonald, president and CEO of Entergy Arkansas Inc., said Entergy plans to invest close to $1 billion in its transmission grid over the next several years.

“This new operations center is representative of a lengthy list of projects we have planned for the Arkansas transmission grid,” he said. “We will invest about $900 million over the next five years on transmission lines, substations and related equipment to ensure the system is up to long-term demands the future will bring.”

McDonald noted the Entergy center’s inclusion in what he called a “nice cluster” of highly paid engineers and technicians in Little Rock as represented by the new Southwest Power Pool and the soon-to-open Midwest Independent Systems Operators corporate headquarters in west Little Rock.

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