Under-River High-Voltage Transmission Line Helps Cruisers!

Hi Everyone,

I received this press release from the Entergy Corporation and thought
it would be of interest. This is the transmission line that has
required Carnival to delay and change their port of call away from New
Orleans due to height restrictions. As you may know, Carnival had
threatened to not cruise to the port of New Orleans if this line was
not moved. This should no longer be a problem. This sounds like a
fascinating project. If you have missed any of my news' postings,
they are available on my web site.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com


Entergy Under-River High-Voltage Transmission Line Makes Power
Industry History, Increases Reliability

NEW ORLEANS, May 12
A high-voltage transmission line buried 100 feet beneath the bottom of
the Mississippi River at New Orleans, which incorporates a number of
first-ever technologies and engineering techniques, has been energized
by Entergy Louisiana, Inc., a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:
ETR - News), it was announced today.
"Our transmission engineers have written a new chapter in power
industry history as they built on the company's record of supplying
reliable power in a unique region both blessed and challenged by the
constraints of natural boundaries and a rich but delicate ecosystem,"
said J. Wayne Leonard, Entergy's chief executive officer.

Applying oil industry directional drilling and aerospace satellite
guidance, Entergy's transmission engineers developed a unique solution
to permanently resolve the issue of ever-larger vessels entering the
port of New Orleans.

The company's new high-voltage transmission lines are housed inside a
flexible duct system of 12 pipes of varying diameters nearly 4000 feet
long, weighing over 400 tons. The transmission cables within the ducts
are among the longest, heaviest unspliced underground transmission
cables ever manufactured.

Enameled strands and the use of fiber optics, along with their
continuous length, size, ratings and voltage class make the
transmission cables unique.

Project Details

After months of planning and staging, work on the under river
transmission cable project began last August. A horizontal directional
drilling unit, guided by GPS technology, wound a path beneath the
river bottom and exited on the opposite bank four inches from its
target point.

Fifty-foot long sections of color coded pipe were fused into
continuous lengths, each approximately 4000 feet long. The twelve
separate pipe strings were bound together. The lead end of the bundle
was attached to a conical steel pulling unit. A four-foot diameter
tunnel was drilled beneath the river bottom and the pipe bundle pulled
through.

The continuous length high-voltage transmission cables were then
pulled through their designated parts of the duct system and
terminated on both sides of the river. The cables were attached to
Entergy's transmission system and energized on May 1, 2004.

The project was completed ahead of its June 2004 completion date,
which had been announced in December of 2002.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily
in electric power production, retail distribution operations, energy
marketing and trading, and gas transportation. Entergy owns and
operates power plants with about 30,000 megawatts of electric
generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in
the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.6 million utility
customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Through
Entergy-Koch, LP, it is also a leading provider of wholesale energy
marketing and trading services, as well as an operator of natural gas
pipeline and storage facilities. Entergy has annual revenues of over
$9 billion and approximately 14,000 employees.

[FACT SHEET: Under River Transmission Cable Project]

-- December 2002: Entergy announces plan to bury the
high-voltage
transmission lines crossing the Mississippi River between
Chalmette
and Algiers beneath the river bottom so large vessels can
sail to the
Port of New Orleans without special maneuvering.

-- As a short-term solution to large vessel access to the port,
Entergy
reconfigured transmission towers and subsequently raised
overhead
transmission lines spanning the river. Before the lines were
raised,
when large cruise ship passed under lines, lower lines
spanning river
were de-energized. The Coast Guard, River Pilots, Entergy
and others
collaborated on the short-term solution.

-- The under-river transmission line project was completed May
1, 2004
ahead of the announced June estimated completion date

-- Transmission cable for the under-river project was specially
ordered
and manufactured. Manufacturing and delivery took less than
one
year. The cables were delivered to New Orleans in December
2003.

-- Approximately 45,000 feet of the specially-designed,
continuous
(unspliced) high voltage cable, weighing nearly 1,000,000
pounds,
manufactured by J-Power Systems in Japan, was required for
the
project.

-- July 2003: crews began joining 50-foot long sections of high
density
polyethylene pipe (HDPE) into "strings" approximately 3,500
feet
long. When completed, about 46,800 feet of pipe, weighing
approximately 750,000 pounds, had been fabricated.

-- Diameters of pipe used in project: two inches, ten inches and
18 inches.

-- Transmission lines are now buried 100 feet below the bottom
of the
Mississippi River. This required the deepest horizontal
drilling
across the Mississippi in history.

-- The total distance (pipe length) across the river --
approximately
3,500 feet.

-- Total amount of pipe purchased for the project -- nearly
48,000 feet.

-- Total weight of the pipe -- approximately 800,000 lbs.

-- Total length of cable purchased for the project --
approximately
45,000 feet.

-- Total weight of cable -- nearly 1,000,000 lbs.

-- Longest single length cable of this design ever manufactured
and
installed.

Entergy's online address is www.entergy.com