NEW ORLEANS — It’s a sigh of relief at the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans as the city dodges the path of Beryl.
“Any dry day is a good day,” said Executive Director Ghassan Korban.
That’s especially true when one of the major turbines, and a major source of power to get water out of the city, still doesn’t work. Turbine 4, or T-4, can’t seem to get the fix it needs.
“As everybody in this city knows we are running on very, very old, antiquated equipment. T-4 is 109 years old, so it’s susceptible for breaking down and so is T5,” said Korban.
Korban says T-4 was supposed to be operational last week, but crews discovered additional needed repairs. He says it should be fixed by next week but knows it’s only a matter of time before something else happens.
“It’s a machine that really has served us well for many, many years but I’m very anxious to put it behind us and not ever mention it, ever again,” said Korban.
That should happen when a new power substation is operational. Korban says the more than $300 million dollar project at the Carrollton water plant will eliminate the old unreliable system of turbines and generators.
“When you have the substation working it’s just one single [source of] power. It has all the power that you need to drive all the pumps that you need to use,” said Korban.
He expects it’ll be operational by the middle of next hurricane season even though the legislature denied a request for an additional $29 million for completion.
“It doesn’t have all the features that we have it designed to have so we’ll have a few pieces that will not be completed but that would not preclude us or impede us from using it,” said Korban.
In the meantime, even without T-4, Korban says there’s plenty of power and pumps available to handle whatever Beryl may bring.
“We have about 49 megawatts of power available and at a peak demand we need about 44,” said Korban. “So, we stand in good shape.”
When T-4 is back, Korban says there will be an additional 18 megawatts.
He says that’ll stand the city up in better shape as we power through hurricane season.
The Sewerage and Water Board is working with the governor’s office to find additional funding sources for that power substation. A spokesman for the governor told WWL Louisiana there will be a new conference to announce it, but no date has been set.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.