Some 500,000 Entergy customers still without power

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - More than 500,000 customers in Entergy Corp's (ETR.N) service area in Louisiana and Arkansas remained without power Friday morning after Hurricane Gustav caused massive damage to the company's transmission system when it hit Louisiana Monday.

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 11,000 restoration workers would restore power to 90 percent of New Orleans customers within three days and most of the rest of the hard hit South Louisiana area within a week.

Entergy also said eleven of the 12 oil refineries and petrochemical plants affected by the storm would have power by midnight Thursday. Even with power it still takes days for a refinery to ramp up to normal production.

At the peak Tuesday morning, about 850,000 Entergy customers were without power primarily in Louisiana and Mississippi. Another 93,000 customers lost power in Arkansas on Wednesday.

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

Elsewhere in Louisiana, Cleco Corp (CNL.N) of Pineville said about 68,000 customers were still without power, down from over 240,000 on Sept. 2. That peak was about 90 percent of 273,000 customers Cleco serves.

Entergy shut the 967 MW River Bend nuclear power station in Louisiana Monday afternoon due to the loss of demand caused by extensive outages in the region.

Before the storm hit, Entergy shut the 1,152 MW Waterford 3 nuclear power reactor in Louisiana Sunday night in anticipation of the heavy forecast winds.

Both nuclear reactors remained shut Friday morning.

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 John Picinich)