Exhibit 18(b)
                                                                 
                                                                 
                                                                 
                                                                 

February 13, 1997

Entergy Corporation
639 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70113

Gentlemen:

We  are  providing this letter to you for inclusion as an exhibit
to your Form 10-K filing pursuant to Item 601 of Regulation S-K.

We   have  read  management's  justification  contained  in   the
Company's Financial Statements which are included in its Form 10-
K  for  the  year  ended December 31, 1996,  for  the  change  in
accounting  principle  of  System  Energy  Resources,  Inc.  from
expensing  incremental  nuclear plant  outage  maintenance  costs
during  the  operating  period in which  they  were  incurred  to
capitalizing  incremental nuclear plant outage maintenance  costs
as  incurred and amortizing them to expense during the  operating
period  between  outages.  Based on  our  reading  of  the  data,
including  documents relating to the Company's  May  1995  filing
with  the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting a  rate
increase, and discussions with Company officials of the  business
judgment and business planning factors relating to the change, we
believe    management's   justification   to    be    reasonable.
Accordingly,   we  concur  that  the  newly  adopted   accounting
principle   described  above  is  preferable  in  the   Company's
circumstances to the method previously applied.


Very truly yours,

COOPERS & LYBRAND L.L.P.