NEW ORLEANS — If there were a big takeaway from Hurricane Ida, General Superintendent of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans Steve Nelson would say it’s about power.
“The key lesson for Hurricane Ida was the amount of time, the length of time, the power was down,” said Nelson. “[It] really highlighted that need for backup power generation.”
Backup power generation, to ensure water can be pumped out of the city, has been a focus for the utility since the storm nearly three years ago. That’s why Nelson says the new power substation at the Carrollton plant is critical.
“That power complex project is going to remove that reliance on power that's generated by antiquated equipment,” said Nelson.
That’s not expected to happen until next year though. For this hurricane season, city councilman Joe Giarrusso has concerns.
“Is a pump going to fail, is something going to happen, and you hope that doesn’t happen and this will hopefully be the last hurricane season where we’re relying on the old power system,” said Giarrusso.
Part of the old system is Turbine 4, a major power source. It hasn’t always been reliable. Nelson expects it’ll be operational within two weeks. He says that’ll help provide 70 megawatts of power for peak hurricane season for the city, excluding New Orleans East and the Westbank.
“Having that ability to have 70 megs, we need 44 at a minimum, to have the redundancy is going to be crucial because we can have all the pumps in the world but if we don’t have the power to run them, it’s going to be a challenge,” said Nelson.
One existing challenge is clogged drains, which the utility addressed at the public works committee on Monday.
“When you hear about 250,000 feet of linear line had been cleaned and there’s two million pounds of junk in it, that is not their fault. That is the fact that the city, for decades, has neglected this, and we need to get all of that done,” said Giarrusso.
Getting it done isn’t easy, or fast. That’s why the utility is working to ensure the system can power through another hurricane season.
The Sewerage and Water Board plans to eventually replace older generators in New Orleans East and on the West Bank, there’s just no timeline yet on when that will happen.
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