NEW ORLEANS — Entergy New Orleans is making a public push in hopes the New Orleans City Council will approve its plans to strengthen the power grid on Feb. 1.
In a letter to city councilmembers, the company called the investment plans 'urgent.' The utility originally gave the council its plans in April 2023 with a proposed approval deadline of Dec. 31, 2023.
Deanna Rodriguez, CEO of Entergy New Orleans, said the plan was requested by the council following Hurricane Ida.
“We’re going to get another storm," Rodriguez said, “Customers either pay storm by storm higher prices because everyone knows everything costs more immediately following a storm, or we do it in advance and we do it over a period of time and we harden the grid now.”
Rodriguez said customers paid $200 million for Hurricane Ida.
The Category 4 hurricane left more than one million people across the New Orleans region in the dark.
Councilmembers have pushed back on the company's plan, saying Entergy should take some of the financial responsibility off of its customers.
"If it's not done and we're not ready for the next storm it's because we didn't have the approval," Rodriguez said.
If approved, bills would go up by 20 cents a month per household in the first year, and then go up in following years, Rodriguez said.
Entergy said it's looking at credits and federal funding that would offset some of the project's cost.
Director of Policy for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, Jesse George, said customers are already struggling to pay utility bills.
"New Orleanians are tired of being treated as an ATM machine for Entergy. It's time that Entergy has some skin in the game in terms of resilience planning in the City," George said.
George works closely with the council and said he would like to see more accountability because there's no guarantee the resilience plan will work.
“There need to be evaluations, metrics in place, to be able to evaluate these promised resilience benefits and ensure that they materialize, and if they don’t rate payers should not be on the hook for those improvements," George said.
“I’m very confident that it will show progress," Rodriguez said.
If approved, Entergy would begin 'Phase 1' which includes an $87 million investment to harden or convert to underground 2,700 poles. The company said it would harden nearly 50 line miles across New Orleans.
Councilmember Helena Moreno's office said to expect an announcement around the next Climate and Sustainability Committee meeting on Jan. 30.
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