NEW ORLEANS — Exactly two years ago, Hurricane Ida hit the New Orleans area with a vengeance, damaging or destroying thousands of homes and businesses and knocking power out to almost the entire region.
Like the levees that crumbled after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the big infrastructure failure during Ida was our local power grid.
Entergy described it as a “catastrophic transmission failure.”
The category four storm knocked out all of the high-voltage lines that carry electricity into the region, plunging more than one million customers into darkness.
“There was no power coming into the city of New Orleans,” New Orleans City Council Vice President Helena Moreno said.
After the storm, Louisiana leaders criticized Entergy for failing to rebuild a stronger and more resilient power system after repeated damage from past hurricanes.
“Not only does the New Orleans grid need to be hardened, but really all across the state of Louisiana to at the end of the day make us all much safer,” Moreno said.
Entergy claims it is making some progress.
“Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans continue to invest heavily in the grid since Hurricane Ida, completing numerous resiliency and reliability upgrades to help keep the lights on year-round and lower restoration costs after major storm events occur,” The utility company said.
Entergy is now building the system to withstand 150-mile-per-hour winds.
Monday, Rep. Troy Carter, (D-La.) announced a $19 million federal grant to help Entergy decrease the risk of power outages in Jefferson Parish.
“We know that we have seen storms come and go,” Rep, Carter said. “We know they come faster, they stay longer, and they leave a lot more havoc in their past.”
Jefferson Parish Councilman Ricky Templet said the money will be put to good use.
“Help harden our electrical grid,” Templet said. “Help harden new poles. Help put things underground that help us harden our system to make sure we can make people safer during a hurricane and hopefully sustain power.”
Moreno is pushing a multi-layered approach to improving power reliability.
That includes burying some electrical lines, improving poles and wires and building more community lighthouses where people can go when the power is out.
“They are centers powered by solar and batteries that take you away from the Entergy power grid and can self-sustain on their own,” Moreno said.
Moreno admits, like the levee improvements after Hurricane Katrina, it will take billions of dollars in federal assistance to get the power grid where it needs to be in south Louisiana and across the Gulf South.
Entergy full statement:
Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans continue to invest heavily in the grid since Hurricane Ida, completing numerous resiliency and reliability upgrades to help keep the lights on year-round and lower restoration costs after major storm events occur.
Since Hurricane Ida’s historic impact on the state, Entergy Louisiana completed the Harahan to Avondale river crossing transmission line to withstand 175 mph winds, 8-mile underground distribution powerline project in Grand Isle, new Caminada substation in Grand Isle, and new Munster substation and neighboring substation and transmission upgrades in Meraux.
Entergy New Orleans built on previous investments in the grid such as the New Orleans Power Station, by installing significant infrastructure upgrades at the Derbigny substation in the Central Business District, making critical transformer replacements for Avenue C substation in Lakeview, completing significant gas system modernization work across the metro area, and breaking ground on the West Power Complex to provide a dedicated substation to the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans.
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