Entergy Unit and Cogentrix Energy, Inc. Subsidiary

Reach Agreement for Purchase of Ouachita Power Facility

Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) announced that its subsidiary, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. (EAI), has signed an Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire the Ouachita Power Facility, a nominally-rated 789 megawatt power plant, from Ouachita Power, LLC, an indirect subsidiary of Cogentrix Energy, Inc. EAI expects to sell approximately one third of the output of the plant to Entergy Gulf States, Inc. on a long-term basis under a separate agreement.

“The acquisition of a modern, highly-efficient load-following generation resource such as Ouachita will help meet our objective of providing, safe, reliable service to customers at a reasonable cost,” said J. Wayne Leonard, Entergy’s chairman and chief executive officer. “This transaction is well aligned with our disciplined, market point of view for capital deployment. This dispatchable resource will provide fuel savings to customers, but also both the Facility’s location and technology are well-suited to meet the time-varying demands of customers and the System.”

The transaction results from a Request for Proposal issued in 2006, which solicited long-term resources for the Entergy Operating Companies. EAI and Cogentrix also have entered into a Power Purchase Agreement for the entire output of Ouachita that will commence on January 1, 2008 and is set to expire at closing.

The facility, which entered commercial service in 2002, is a nominal 789 megawatt General Electric 7FA combined-cycle gas-fired generating facility located near Monroe, La. The plant will be 100 percent owned by EAI and closing is expected to be completed in 2008. The purchase is contingent upon obtaining necessary approvals, including full cost recovery, from various federal agencies, state regulatory and permitting agencies and the filing of notification under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust law.

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. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and approximately 14,500 employees.