A town hall meeting to address the issue of frequent power outages affecting Carmack and surrounding areas was held on Sept. 28 at the Carmack Community Center. In attendance were Mississippi Speaker of the House Jason White, Entergy CEO Haley Fisackerly, and Public Service Commission Northern District Commissioner Chris Brown, in addition to a panel of Entergy representatives to describe action plans and answer questions. They discussed the causes of recent power outages and consumer cost increases and what Entergy intends to do about the ongoing issues. Community members had the opportunity to voice their concerns, share feedback, and ask questions.
The community center was filled with over 200 community members who were eager to provide their perspectives, share their experiences with recurring power outages, and learn Entergy’s plans for addressing the ongoing issues. The meeting began with a prayer, pledge of allegiance, welcome to those in attendance, and an explanation where the exits and restrooms were located in the community center. It included a presentation detailing factors that contribute to the outages, Entergy’s power restoration process, and their current actions and next steps.
White stated that it became apparent that Entergy customers were dealing with more outages at their homes, properties, and businesses than are normal and that it was time for Entergy to see what could be done to rectify this. This prompted the meeting which was organized by members of the Carmack community. White stated that when he contacted Fisackerly regarding the outages he promptly responded that the matter would be looked into and did not make any excuses, “and his next call to me was ‘I would like to go and meet your people, see what’s going on there, and find a resolution to this’ and it’s not a lot of times that corporate America responds in that way.”
There was an open mic for attendees to voice their statements, questions, and concerns. The common themes among customer statements included complaints of frequent and prolonged power outages, aging infrastructure, difficulty communicating power outages and downed power lines, damage to appliances due to flickering power, and increased electricity costs even during periods with prolonged power outages. One attendee stated their power went out at least 200 times one year, and others stated their power was consistently out for more than a day at a time.
The frequent and prolonged outages are not merely an inconvenience. They are a safety concern for those who require electricity to power health-sustaining medical equipment. Flickering power has been attributed to the cause of shortening the lifespan of appliances and electronics, the replacement of which has placed undue financial hardship on residents. Some attendees stated that prolonged power outages also affected their cellphone reception, which made it difficult if not impossible for them to report the outages. They were also unable to report outages from the mobile app if their phone’s batteries were depleted and unable to recharge due to loss of electricity. This was not the only complaint with outage report communication. Some people complained that they wanted to be able to speak directly with someone who was local and familiar with the area when reporting outages, and some residents said they did not understand how to report an outage or even knew that it was possible to do so. Some stated that the automated outage report system was inefficient, and occasionally would not allow users to report an outage at all. Another complaint was that the estimated time of power restoration was consistently incorrect, with the app occasionally estimating power restoration time on a day that had passed. Some experienced the app notifying users of incorrect information, including incorrect addresses, and stating that power had been restored when it had not. A common suggestion was that there should be an easy way to speak directly to a representative to explain the issues being experienced when trying to report outages. One issue expressed was that rural community members felt like their concerns were dismissed because they lived in the county rather than city. They felt penalized for choosing to reside in a rural area. Concern was expressed for aging infrastructure, with several people stating the advanced age of light poles was sure to cause issues. Another common theme among complaints was the rising costs of electricity bills, with some saying that their bills increased even during months when their power had been off for extended periods.
The power restoration process begins with an outage notification. When an outage notification is received, whether through a call center or through the app, it goes through the distribution operation center which is located in Jackson, Mississippi. The distribution operation center is like a control room that sees the entire electric grid and can see where outages are located. When outages are detected, they will dispatch the serviceman. The serviceman will complete any work that can be completed by one person. If there is damage that requires a construction crew, special equipment, or additional supplies, the serviceman will contact the distribution operation center to dispatch those crews to begin the necessary work in those areas. Entergy implements automation to narrow down where an outage may be, rather than having to check miles of lines to locate an outage. It was pointed out that the repairmen have an extremely dangerous job.
The Entergy team explained that one of the biggest challenges faced in rural areas with dense trees was the drought the state experienced in 2023. “That caused one of the worst impacts on our state from southwest Mississippi all the way up into this area here,” said Fisackerly. He went on to say that the Mississippi Forestry Commission estimated at minimum over twelve and a half million dead trees in the state, and that the number has only grown due to pine beetle infestations that caused additional tree deaths, and that this may be a low estimate. This was attributed to a 72% increase in outages in Attala County. Entergy has increased their vegetation spending by over 100%. Because there is no grid for redundancy in rural areas, those residents are more likely to experience outages.
One explanation for higher electricity bills is the increasing cost of transformers, poles, wires, and supplying everything Entergy provides while experiencing no growth in business. “When you have no growth in your business, and your costs are going up, and you’re trying to manage the rates of your customers, it becomes a very big challenge. But the good news is that has changed. You’ve heard a lot about data centers and stuff of that nature that are happening down in central Mississippi and you’re wondering ‘how does that impact me here?’ We are now able to bring more customers on the grid that are contributing more dollars to the grid and allow us to reinvest in that. In fact, we announced a program this past fall that we’re implementing now called Superpower Mississippi where we’re increasing our reliability budget by over fifty percent up to a billion dollars. That fifty percent increase is being covered one hundred percent by these data centers that are coming into the state, one hundred percent at no cost to you, that over the next five years will allow us to go after aggressively and reduce outages by fifty percent,” said Fisackerly. Bill increases were also attributed to high temperatures which could lead consumers to run air conditioners for extended periods.
Entergy hopes to accomplish improved service provision through vegetation plans, maintenance plans, infrastructure upgrades, grid improvements, and additional personnel. Entergy will aggressively address challenges faced by deceased vegetation through executing a vegetation plan to trim vegetation at the beginning for the first quarter of 2027. Vegetation is trimmed cyclically and the last time vegetation in this area was trimmed was in 2020. Herbicide is also used cyclically. Every year since 2023 Entergy has expanded their crew to address increased numbers of dead trees. They have used artificial intelligence to analyze satellite imagery to try to identify some of the locations with vegetation issues. The artificial intelligence compares current landscape snapshots to snapshots from previous years to collect data to see what has changed, what has grown, how the landscape has changed, and identifies areas that need attention. Crew members then patrol that area to check for issues. Entergy mitigated approximately 670 trees in the three weeks prior to the meeting. Entergy serves over 6,600 customers and over 860 miles of power lines in Attala County with roughly seven customers per mile.
The reliability plan for upgrading aging infrastructure includes identifying circuits and modernizing the grid with not only new materials such as poles and wires but also with new technology to do that. Two different factors are considered: the actual performance of the equipment, including what outages were caused by the condition of the equipment, and also the reliability and performance. Outages caused by equipment help trigger improvements and upgrades to infrastructure, whereas vegetation is targeted for outages determined to have been caused by vegetation. This allows Entergy to invest in the areas that will make the greatest impact. Fisackerly said that the improvements could not be completed overnight, as Entergy maintains over 18,000 miles of power lines across Mississippi.
Long-time Entergy customer Clyde Ferrell was hopeful that the town hall meeting would provide an opportunity for Entergy to listen to their customers and that the public service commissioner would be made aware of what Entergy customers have been experiencing for the past decades. “It has never been good,” said Ferrell. “All the way through the ’90s the power was inconsistent.” Ferrell grew up in the area but moved away for 17 years. He returned in 2016 and observed that power provided by Entergy remained inconsistent but has become increasingly worse. “Now, over the past several years, the reliability has been declining,” he said. “My experience with Entergy has been increasing power outages. Since we moved in our house in 2017 I have replaced three ovens, two microwaves, two dishwashers, two refrigerators, a deep freezer, and every year an electrical component on the air conditioner has to be replaced.” One of Ferrell’s takeaways from the meeting was that Entergy’s leadership does not seem to be fully aware of what their customers are experiencing. “There seems to be a disconnect somewhere between the customer and the CEO. I don’t know where that breakdown is, but there is a breakdown in there somewhere. Do they have a plan? Sure. Is it a sufficient plan? I don’t know that it is. And I understand that it is going to take time,” said Ferrell. “I don’t want to be too harsh, they do have a hard job and I understand that. I understand that they have thousands of miles of right-of-way, I understand that they have a lot of equipment to maintain, they also have a robust staff of people who should be capable of planning maintenance and executing that maintenance. It’s an aging grid. Out where we live, some of those power poles were put in in 1947. My grandfather had a mule and he actually helped drag the poles and set them out where they needed to go along the right-of-way. Some of those poles installed in 1947 are still in service. An aging grid and aging equipment take more intensive maintenance to keep it operational. I think the one thing they have to do better is maintain the right-of-ways better than they are now.” He suggested that if they have a four to six year rotation to control vegetation they shorten it to every three to five years. There is a canopy of vegetation over the top of the powerlines that cross his property. “I’d be willing to let them clear back more to have more reliable power,” said Ferrell. “I get that it’s expensive, but this is the business that they’re in, they’re a public service provider, they’ve got to do it. The more I pay, that reliability factor should either stay the same or improve, it shouldn’t decay over time.”
Attala County native Anne Louise Phillips has experienced dissatisfaction with the service provided by Entergy as well. “I grew up with friends who had power from other providers. They lived just as rurally as we did. I remember them marveling at how often our power went out. Reliable power can be provided to rural communities adjacent to us by others, so it is very frustrating that Entergy is not delivering even remotely comparable service,” said Phillips.
Be the first to comment on "Carmack Community Center Holds Town Hall Meeting to Discuss Electrical Issues in Attala County"