BOLIVAR PENINSULA — Residents of Bolivar Peninsula might see electricity restored by the end of the weekend, far sooner than originally estimated.
“If we’re not finished by then, it shouldn’t be long afterward,” said Joe Domino, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Texas.
Initial reports warned that damage was so extensive it could take up to 90 days to get all the power back on.
During a conference call with reporters Friday, Domino said the plan had changed somewhat from what he outlined the day before.
“We originally planned to connect to our lines in Winnie, but we’ve since determined that it would be faster to connect directly to the ERCOT grid,” Domino said.
ERCOT is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, based in Austin. According to the council’s Web site, its grid provides power to more than 20 million people in a 200,000 square mile area of Texas.
Among those working behind the scenes was Kyle Janek, who represents the peninsula in the state Senate.
“We worked with the governor’s office to clear the mountains of red tape,” said Casey Haney, Janek’s communications director.
Domino said the regulatory help was welcome.
“That has led to some really unprecedented ways to get work done in a much faster manner,” Domino said.
Of course, the damage caused by Hurricane Rita was unprecedented. Though Hurricane Katrina knocked out power to more of its customers, Domino said, Hurricane Rita caused more damage to Entergy’s system.
“It caused more damage than any storm we’ve ever experienced,” Domino said.
By Friday morning, the utility still had 247 transmission lines and 244 substations remaining to be repaired.
Domino said Centerpoint Energy had directed 1,500 workers toward the effort to restore electricity on the peninsula.
“That’s probably their entire work force for the weekend,” he said.
He said his company’s first priority had been to restore electrical service, but he said the industry had begun to think about changes that might help in the event of a future storm.
One change, he said, might be to build another link to the ERCOT grid.
“That’s something we’ll definitely look at,” he said.
Another potential change would be to put more of its lines below ground.
“That’s a question that always comes up,” Domino said, “and it really comes down to an issue of cost.”
The price of an underground line is about 10 times the cost of putting a line overhead, he said.
“It gets to the point where you have to make an economic decision,” he said. “Is the customer willing to pay the additional cost for the added reliability?”
