Published: June 11, 2008 11:53 am         

Sisson completes Entergy boot camp

Entergy Mississippi is giving power outages the ‘boot.’

The utility recently graduated 16 linemen, including one from McCool, from an intensive, 14-week “boot camp” designed to teach job skills, knowledge and safety through classroom instruction and hands-on experience.

Brian Sisson of McCool will report to Entergy Mississippi’s Kosciusko office. Like other graduates, he will continue on-the-job training for approximately 14 months.

“Our customers tell us that the service improvements we have made in recent years are working, but we are always looking for ways to do better,” said Paul Powers, customer service manager for Entergy Mississippi in Kosciusko. “The boot camp helps ensure that we have trained personnel in place as other linemen reach retirement age. These young men are topnotch and will contribute greatly to our company’s vision to be the power company of the future.”

Powers said the training course, held at Entergy Mississippi’s new $3-million, state-of-the-art Knowledge and Skills Training (KAST) Center in Clinton, is part of the company’s reliability efforts under the Ennovations initiative launched in 2007. This program combines decades of industry experience with new technologies and extensive planning to make a quality product even better.

Coursework includes an overview of the Overhead and Underground Construction Specifications Manual and the Safety Manual, developing teamwork skills and gaining an understanding of distribution line work, tools and applications.

The graduating group is the first to be trained using the new 100 percent fall protection device, the BuckSqueeze, to climb poles.

“The BuckSqueeze fits with Entergy’s commitment to create a safe work environment,” said Powers. “This group has really taken to it and has progressed faster because of it.”

Entergy Mississippi, Inc. provides electricity to more than 433,000 customers in 45 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 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.