On December 17, 2009, regulators of Energy Corp.’s retail operations announced the formation of the Entergy Regional State Committee (“E-RSC” or “Committee”), comprised of regulators from the Arkansas Public Service Commission, Louisiana Public Service Commission, Mississippi Public Service Commission, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and the City of New Orleans’ City Council.

In 2007, Entergy contracted with the Southwest Power Pool to serve as its Independent Transmission Coordinator (“ITC”) of its transmission system.  One of the goals of the Committee is to improve the effectiveness of the Entergy ITC in overseeing Entergy’s 15,000-mile grid and its process to upgrade the network. 

The Committee may also provide a forum to settle conflicts between Entergy’s retail regulators regarding the company’s 1982 “system agreement,” which governs the interaction of Entergy’s operating utilities as a single power pool.  In November 2009, FERC approved Entergy’s request to exit that agreement between 2013 and 2015.  The City of New Orleans and the Louisiana Commission opposed ending the agreement, arguing that Entergy Arkansas should not be allowed to exit the power pool without penalty because it owns low-cost generation that was built partially to serve Louisiana customers.

At the E-RSC’s first meeting on December 16, the Committee selected Arkansas commission chairman, Paul Suskie, to serve as President, Louisiana commissioner Jimmy Field to serve as Vice-President and Texas commissioner Ken Anderson to serve as Secretary.  Other representatives on the E-RSC are vice-chair of the Mississippi Commission, Brandon Presley and New Orleans councilmember Cynthia Willard-Lewis.

Additional information about the E-RSC is available online at: http://www.spp.org/section.asp?pageID=123.