Some 180,000 Entergy customers still without power NEW YORK (REUTERS) (wrkf) - More than 180,000 customers in Entergy Corp's service area in Louisiana remained without power Monday, one week after Hurricane Gustav caused massive damage to the company's transmission system when it hit September 1-3.

Over the past week, Entergy has restored power to more than 767,000 of the 964,000 customers who lost service in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Regionwide, Gustav cut power to more than 1.8 million homes and businesses along the Gulf Coast and shut more than a dozen oil refineries and numerous oil and natural gas pipelines and other energy facilities.

Entergy predicted its team of 14,000 restoration workers would return power to most of the remaining affected customers by the end of the week. Some homes and businesses in the hardest hit areas may have to wait until the end of the month.

Entergy said it restored power to all 12 of the oil refineries and petrochemical plants affected by the storm. Even with power it still takes days or weeks for a refinery to ramp up to normal production depending on the damage.

Hurricane Gustav caused the second largest number of outages in Entergy's 95-year history behind only Hurricane Katrina, which left 1.1 million out in 2005.

Elsewhere in Louisiana, Cleco Corp of Pineville said all but 3,500 customers were still without power, down from over 240,000 on September 2. That peak was about 90 percent of the 273,000 customers Cleco serves.

Both of Entergy's nuclear power reactors in Louisiana remained out of service Monday morning. Entergy shut the 1,152 MW Waterford 3 reactor before Gustav hit and the 967 MW River Bend reactor after the storm hit.

After inspecting the station, the NRC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on September 4 Entergy could restart Waterford 3.

Entergy meanwhile said workers were repairing wind damage to the turbine building siding at River Bend.

Entergy did not say in a release Monday morning when the reactors would return to service.

One MW powers about 500 homes in Entergy's service territory.

Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Jim Marshall)

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