Star Status

As of year-end 2008, 60 work sites within Entergy had achieved Star status under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program, the highest safety rating for an industrial work site. This represents more than 50 percent of the Entergy sites that can feasibly file for VPP certification.

We aspire to achieve an accident-free work environment for Entergy employees and contractors. Our commitment to safety extends throughout our organization from nuclear plant operators to linemen and office workers, and from entry-level employees to the most senior executive. At Entergy, safety is everybody’s job.

Our 2008 Safety Performance

Entergy employees and contractors turned in an excellent safety performance in 2008. Key performance highlights for the year include:

• Our employees and contractors executed the safest and fastest storm restoration effort in the company’s history following two back-to-back hurricanes that struck within a two-week period.
• We achieved a Lost Work Day Incident Rate of 0.21 for Entergy employees compared to 0.22 in 2007. The rate measures the annual lost work day cases per 100 employees. For contractors, the LWDIR improved to 0.34 in 2008 from 0.44 in 2007. Most importantly, we did not experience any fatalities.
• Our Fossil organization turned in a stellar safety performance in 2008, without any lost-time or restricted duty accidents.
• Entergy Nuclear reduced its restricted duty accidents.
• As of year-end 2008, 60 Entergy work sites had earned Star status under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program (OSHA VPP), the highest possible safety rating for an industrial work site.

In 2008, we also continued work on our comprehensive five-year safety plan, held a companywide safety and environmental professionals conference and maintained our focus on building the behaviors, systems and culture needed to achieve zero accidents. Additional details on our safety performance, plan and initiatives can be found in this section of our sustainability report.

Executing the Safest Storm Restoration in Company History

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike were among the most destructive storms we’ve ever experienced and both presented unique challenges. For example, Hurricane Gustav severely damaged the transmission system, knocking 13 of the 14 transmission lines serving the New Orleans metropolitan area out of service and creating an island with the area no longer connected to the electricity grid. At peak outages, 964,000 customers were without power following Hurricane Gustav, which was second only to Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Ike knocked out power to 705,000 customers at its peak, including 99 percent of Entergy Texas, Inc.’s customers, the most in its history.

At peak effort, we had 14,900 front-line workers restoring power following Gustav including 11,950 workers from outside Entergy’s employee base. At peak effort following Ike, we had 12,300 workers including 9,350 from outside Entergy’s employee base. In total for both storms, we operated 206 staging sites and provided more than 1.1 million meals to workers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

This massive storm recovery effort was the fastest and, most importantly, the safest restoration on record for Entergy. Not only were there no fatalities, but safety measures also improved in every category from those previously recorded following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The LWDIR following hurricanes Gustav and Ike was 0.25 compared to 0.87 following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Reportable incidents dropped by 56 percent, even though employees worked more man-hours during the recovery efforts following hurricanes Gustav and Ike. In addition, 95 percent of the reported incidents were experienced by off-system contractors.

Best practices for safe storm recovery were identified and implemented including:

• “One Voice” communications that entailed twice-daily safety broadcasts over company radios and daily transmission of safety statistical data to field-based supervisors.
• Safe re-entry protocol for buildings that covered safety, health and environmental concerns.
• Use of a gateway book – with information on poisonous plants and insecticides – that facilitated the required check-in process for specific geographic areas.

Entergy is recognized as a leader in safe, effective storm restoration. We received both the Edison Electric Institute Emergency Assistance Award and the Emergency Recovery Award for our response to 2008 storms. In fact, we are the only utility to have received either the Assistance or Recovery Award every year since 1999, the first year the awards were presented.

A State of Mind… A Way of Life

In May 2008, more than 50 safety and environmental professionals from across the company attended a two-day conference addressing systemwide issues and programs. The conference was entitled “A State of Mind… A Way of Life.” All business functions were represented and, as a result of an employee suggestion, more than 15,000 wristbands with the conference tagline were distributed to Entergy employees.

Holding a systemwide conference sends a clear message that Entergy is fully committed to creating an accident-free work environment. It also helps align objectives, processes and resources across the company. Conferences are typically scheduled every 18 months.

This type of integrated, systemwide approach is a hallmark of Entergy’s safety culture. We implement and foster this approach through our integrated Safety, Health and Environmental policies and management system. It is reinforced with our regularly scheduled systemwide conferences as well as regular reviews of significant safety events by the office of the chief executive including lost-time injuries. We believe senior executive involvement and companywide integration are fundamental strengths of Entergy’s safety culture.

Implementing Our Five-Year Safety Plan

We launched our five-year comprehensive safety plan in 2007 with the goal of reducing the LWDIR for Entergy employees and contractors by a minimum of 50 percent by year-end 2011 and to enhance our focus on the total elimination of fatalities.

Our plan includes six specific initiatives, each with an executive sponsor, assigned team members and a specific timeline. The initiatives are:

• Hazard assessments/barriers, which focuses on the complete elimination of all major injuries and work-related fatalities by constructing as many barriers as feasible between employees and the hazardous condition.
• Human performance, which strives to reduce unsafe situations by changing human performance and reducing errors.
• Ergonomics, which is geared toward reducing injuries caused by overexertion, awkward postures and/or repetitive motion.
• Contractor safety, which strives to create the same safe work environments for contractors that exist for Entergy employees.
• Active safety participation and ownership, which focuses on getting all employees continuously engaged in safe practices from entry level to senior management.
• Safety information management system, which will allow employees to track and trend data in a proactive manner with the ultimate goal of being able to predict and thereby prevent accidents before they occur.

In 2008, work continued on each initiative with the teams identifying best practices, gaps in performance and recommendations to close those gaps. One example of progress being made is in the hazard assessment/barriers initiative where 100 percent fall protection was instituted by Utility Operations to address slip and fall injuries, one of the most frequent injuries experienced by Entergy linemen.

Taking Steps to Earn OSHA VPP Star Status

In our ongoing operations, we use the criteria in the OSHA VPP as a guide to improve workplace safety. Entergy work sites are encouraged, but not required, to file for certification under OSHA VPP. As of year-end 2008, 60 work sites within Entergy had earned Star status, the highest safety rating for an industrial work site. This represents more than 50 percent of the Entergy sites that can feasibly file for VPP certification.

Putting a Spotlight on Public Safety

Each year in the U.S., hundreds of people are killed and more than 10,000 people are injured from electrical incidents in the home. At work, electricity causes more than 300 deaths each year. Yet most electrical injuries can be avoided. Entergy maintains Web sites designed to educate the public on how to safely use and work around electricity.

The Web sites offer tips, stories and interactive quizzes that make it easy to learn how to safely use electricity. There is a “Living Dangerously Quiz,” basic safety information, tips for do-it-yourself indoor and outdoor projects and case studies that enable people to learn from the mistakes of others. Finally, kids and teachers can visit Entergy’s Electrical Safety World, which offers a fun way to learn about electrical safety.