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Entergy Corporation Proposes Potential Pathways Forward for Entergy New Orleans

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News Release > Entergy Corporation Proposes Potential Pathways Forward for Entergy New Orleans

For Immediate Release

09/21/2021

Company will discuss management options at City Council meetings this week

NEW ORLEANS - Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) announced today that it is preparing to respond to the New Orleans City Council with four preliminary options for the future operation and ownership of its subsidiary, Entergy New Orleans, LLC. These preliminary options are in response to the Sept. 14 announcement by Helena Moreno, president of the Council of the City of New Orleans and chairperson of its Utility Committee, that she intends to propose a resolution to study the future ownership of the electric and gas operations in the City of New Orleans, including municipalization, or a city-owned and managed utility.

"Despite a comprehensive and dedicated restoration effort that saw the overwhelming majority of New Orleans customers' power restored within a week after the strongest hurricane ever to hit our region, several members of the council have expressed their intent to introduce and support a process that could potentially have another entity own and operate electric and gas service in the city," said Rod West, utility group president of Entergy Corporation. "We are positioned to support the City Council as they evaluate various options and prepared to move forward with whatever path the council chooses."

Entergy New Orleans, including its predecessor New Orleans Public Service Inc., has been part of Entergy Corporation and the fabric of the New Orleans community for more than 100 years. New Orleans was one of the first U.S. cities to have a public gas and electric light system for its residents. Entergy New Orleans' geographic footprint is defined by the New Orleans city limits and its regulating body is the New Orleans City Council. New Orleans is also home to the corporate headquarters of Entergy Corporation.

Entergy New Orleans currently services 207,000 electric customers and 108,000 gas customers in the City of New Orleans, representing $633.8 million or approximately 6% of Entergy Corporation's total operating revenues, for fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2020. The subsidiary owns more than 1,800 miles of electric distribution lines, 144 miles of transmission lines and approximately 640 megawatts of power generation. The company also owns 36 miles of natural gas transmission lines and more than 1,700 miles of natural gas distribution lines.

Preliminary options for consideration fall into four broad categories:

"We are positioned to support the City Council as they evaluate various options and prepared to move forward with whatever path the council chooses." - Rod West, Entergy utility group president

"It is obvious that we have reached a critical juncture in our relationship with the City Council," said West. "While we believe that the actions of Entergy New Orleans have always been in the best interest of our New Orleans customers, some members of the council have publicly expressed a different opinion. Certain proposed actions would prohibit ENO from recovering critical storm restoration costs and freeze funding mechanisms previously approved by the council, thus inflicting further financial decline on ENO and adversely impacting ENO's ability to provide quality service to its customers.

"The New Orleans City Council and ENO have a long history of working together to find common ground on solutions for customers that solve complex problems and achieve important objectives to a sustainable energy future for New Orleans," said West. "The council's expected resolution will require it to make an important choice: will the city continue with Entergy as its energy partner or pursue another alternative?"

Among the initiatives and programs Entergy New Orleans created in partnership with the City Council are:

The City Council's Utility Committee is expected to pass its resolution initiating an ownership study on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021.

About Entergy New Orleans

Entergy New Orleans, LLC is an electric and gas utility that serves Louisiana's Orleans Parish. The company provides electricity to more than 200,000 customers and natural gas to more than 108,000 customers. Entergy New Orleans, LLC is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, an integrated energy company engaged in electric power production, transmission and retail distribution operations. Entergy delivers electricity to 3 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy owns and operates one of the cleanest large-scale U.S. power generating fleets with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including 7,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, Entergy has annual revenues of $10 billion and approximately 12,500 employees. Learn more at entergy.com and follow @Entergy on social media.

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