Entergy Resisted Upgrading New Orleans’ Power Grid. Residents Paid the Price

Power company Entergy failed to rebuild a stronger system in New Orleans after hurricanes repeatedly damaged the city’s electric grid. Then Hurricane Ida knocked out power for more than a week in the middle of a heat wave.





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The day after Wilma Banks lost power, the stale summer air inside her New Orleans apartment became suffocating.

Typically when her breathing gets strained, Banks straps on her plastic nebulizer mask. After turning it on, a medicated mist flows into her lungs, making her short breaths full again.

But after Hurricane Ida knocked out her power on Aug. 29, she couldn’t use the nebulizer. She knew her oxygen level would continue to drop. Her heart could stop.

Banks dialed city agencies, where employees told her to find a charging station for medical devices. But they couldn’t help her secure what she needed most: temporary lodging where her machines could remain plugged in. Banks, who lives alone in the neighborhood of New Orleans East, couldn’t turn to friends and neighbors. For miles in every direction — and for more than a million people — the power grid run by Entergy and its subsidiaries had failed.

Like many native New Orleanians, Banks, 58, had lived through catastrophic hurricanes, from Betsy in 1965 to Katrina in 2005. She learned to stock supplies and thought she could ride out this storm, especially because the city hadn’t issued a mandatory evacuation order.

For years, Banks worked in local casinos where clouds of cigarette smoke exacerbated her asthma and eventually contributed to congestive heart failure. On the fourth day of the power outage, after relying on her car to charge her phone, she tweeted at her power company, Entergy New Orleans: «the strain on my heart is getting worse. I need my machines!!





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Wilma Banks, who lives in the neighborhood of New Orleans East, sits on her bed next to her nebulizer and CPAP machine. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, when much of New Orleans was left without power, she wasn’t able to power up the medical devices and had only her limited supply of inhalers to widen her airways.





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The Entergy building, seen from Magnolia Street in the Central City area of New Orleans.





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Entergy had chances after hurricanes to rebuild better


The morning of Aug. 30, the day after Hurricane Ida hit, New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno passed fallen trees and felled utility poles on her way to Avondale, a nearby suburb on the west bank of the Mississippi River. A short while earlier, ENO’s top executive had told the City Council that all eight of the city’s transmission lines had failed. As the chair of the committee that regulates the utility, Moreno was skeptical that the grid had been storm ready. Past the old Avondale shipyard, she spotted an Entergy transmission tower that had buckled, its power lines ripped from the sky.

At the foot of the tower, a TV reporter asked her if Entergy had spent enough to prepare for Ida. «Look, this may have been such a strong, horrible storm that nothing could’ve prevented what went wrong, said Moreno, a former journalist who covered Hurricane Katrina. «But for all eight to fail? I’m wondering if it could have been prevented.

If the company didn’t provide a full explanation about the outage, she thought, the City Council would need to find those answers.

When Hurricane Gustav struck the Gulf Coast in 2008 and left more than 100,000 Louisiana customers without power for over a week, Entergy’s grid across the state was in shambles. Only one of Entergy’s transmission lines serving New Orleans survived. Dillard University professor Robert Collins, an expert in disaster planning, said ENO had a rare opportunity after Gustav to collect from its customers billions of dollars to modernize its grid, an ambitious project that would mirror the $14.5 billion rebuild of its levees following Katrina.

«We are going to have future storms, then-Gov. Bobby Jindal warned after Gustav. «It makes sense to prepare our infrastructure so that we don’t have these extended outages.





After Hurricane Ida hit, ENO’s top executive told the New Orleans City Council that all eight of the city’s transmission lines had failed.





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ENO’s parent company, Entergy, provides power in a region uniquely prone to extreme weather. Massive costs have followed each hurricane: up to $600 million after Gustav in 2008, $500 million for Isaac in 2012, $1.7 billion for Laura in 2020 and, that same year, $250 million for Zeta.

Each wave of repairs has resurfaced questions about whether Entergy is doing enough to build a more resilient grid. In a 2019 climate report, Entergy described a five-year plan for its companies to invest «billions of dollars … in grid modernization and resiliency. Nappi told NPR and ProPublica that ENO has invested nearly $30 million in distribution system upgrades since the beginning of 2020.

But in New Orleans, the power goes out in some areas during downpours and even on sunny days. In the spring of 2017, residents complained so often about outages that the City Council launched an investigation. It found that more than a third of nearly 2,600 outages in the prior year were caused by equipment failures.

ENO blamed the problems on everything from aging infrastructure to squirrels. But councilmembers also found that ENO had slashed spending for equipment upgrades and had diverted funds earmarked for basic repairs. In 2019, the City Council fined ENO $1 million for its «inaction and omissions in mitigating those outages. ENO responded with a lawsuit, alleging the council «unlawfully levied the fine and «disregarded evidence that showed the company acted responsibly. The case is still pending.

«There’s an expectation that regulators are supposed to do whatever the company wants, Moreno said. «That has been the expectation of the company for a while.


How the company gets its way in New Orleans


ENO has continued to use its vast influence to protect its bottom line. The company seeks permission from the City Council to increase fees paid by customers for repairs after hurricanes. Councilmembers typically approve the utility’s requests, but they do not require ENO to make deeper grid investments that could bolster reliability. The council occasionally has required ENO to bury power lines and conduct more rigorous pole inspections, but the scope of those initiatives has been limited.

ENO has dramatically reversed its fortunes since exiting a post-Katrina bankruptcy in 2007. From 2008 to 2017, the utility reported more than $650 million in operating income, but it has resisted spending money to make its grid less susceptible to extreme weather. Energy experts say deep routine investments in grid upgrades such as burying power lines citywide, which would cost at least $2 billion over the long term, would increase the resiliency of the utility’s equipment. It would potentially lower repair costs after storms and reduce the length and scope of power outages.

Asked why ENO hasn’t considered such upgrades, Nappi replied: «Your question supposes that there are unlimited resources that can be supplied by customers, which obviously is unrealistic.





An Entergy transmission tower in the New Orleans suburb of Avondale collapsed during Ida.





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Ed Quatrevaux, a former inspector general for New Orleans, said the council has not provided sufficient oversight of ENO. His office issued a report in 2015 that found councilmembers «lacked basic controls to ensure transparency, prevent misconduct, and promote effective decision-making in the council’s oversight of ENO. (Clint Vince, a council utility adviser, said in a statement to NPR and ProPublica that the report was «discredited.)

Councilmembers also have had past financial ties to ENO, including one official who previously lobbied for ENO and another whose nonprofit received a grant from the utility. Councilmember Cyndi Nguyen, whose nonprofit received the grant, did not respond to ProPublica’s questions but has said the grant would not create a conflict of interest. Councilmember Jay Banks has lobbied for both Entergy and one of the council’s regulatory advisers. He said his experience on both sides has made him a better regulator. «My critics and haters are going to throw bricks, Banks said. «It’s like being paid to lead two teams to the Super Bowl.

ENO has also faced accusations of bullying councilmembers and misleading officials about the difficulties of moving toward carbon-free energy sources faster. Entergy did not answer ProPublica and NPR’s questions about its relationship with the council.

In the aftermath of Ida, Entergy Louisiana’s president and CEO, Phillip May, told reporters during a press call that its grid failed «because Mother Nature is the undisputed world champion.

But New Orleans International Airport recorded data that showed gusts up to 90 mph, below what the company says many of its towers and lines can withstand.

A report by analysts with energy consulting firm McCullough Research found that Entergy had «overstated how long its transmission and distribution equipment can last because of the increased frequency of stronger hurricanes.

When Moreno, the council president, returned to City Hall after observing Ida’s destruction, she thought about the sick, elderly and disabled residents who could not evacuate New Orleans. She wanted better answers about the downed poles, damaged substations and collapsed towers. With relentless heat predicted for days and Entergy’s estimates for power restoration continually shifting, Moreno worried the outage would hurt lots of people before it ended.





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Grace Hollins and her son, Carl Hollins, who has cerebral palsy, at their home in New Orleans. Carl increasingly suffered in the severe heat in their apartment when electricity was out the week after Hurricane Ida.





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Grace Hollins packs as she prepares to take her son, Carl, on a Greyhound bus to Atlanta, where they’ll have access to electricity and she’ll be able to provide better care.





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Entergy reacts to calls to cut its own carbon pollution


ENO’s infrastructure plans also delay a meaningful shift toward more renewable, resilient energy sources, ProPublica and NPR found. In doing so, ENO is defying the advice of climate experts. They have urged companies to reach net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible to minimize global warming, an existential threat to a city like New Orleans that’s below sea level.

Two years ago, ENO implied it would sue councilmembers if they adopted an ambitious clean energy proposal pushed by Energy Future New Orleans, a coalition of local advocacy groups. The Resilient and Renewable Portfolio Standard would have required ENO to shift to 100% renewable energy by 2040, a move advocates said would strengthen the grid by diversifying and decentralizing power sources.





Hollins comforts Carl while they wait to board a Greyhound bus in order to leave New Orleans for Atlanta, fleeing dangerous heat.





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Given that over half its power is generated by natural gas plants, ENO said, the city’s long-term policy to achieve net-zero emissions should be voluntary, not mandatory. The company fought the proposal, criticizing it as an «unworkable, needlessly-restrictive renewables-only approach that could force the company to prematurely retire its carbon-emitting plants.

This past spring, the City Council signed off on a less sweeping plan that requires ENO to shift to 100% renewable energy by 2050, allows for carbon emission offsets and could limit the opportunity for more resilient grid upgrades. Nappi, Entergy’s spokesperson, did not answer questions about ENO’s legal threats but noted that the utility operates solar projects throughout the region.

«To the extent that Entergy is not pursuing aggressive decarbonization, or actively fighting against aggressive decarbonization, it’s really undermining any efforts to give [New Orleans] a resilient system, said University of South Carolina law professor Shelley Welton, whose research focuses on climate change, energy and the environment.

Rather than commit to a rapid shift toward renewable energy, ENO had another plan for strengthening its grid against future storms: the controversial New Orleans Power Station. In 2017, ENO proposed a $232 million gas plant that would have a «black start capability that could quickly restore power following an outage. In part because of this technology, councilmembers voted for the plant in March 2018. The lone dissenter, Susan Guidry, criticized ENO for not considering clean energy alternatives to «help save this city.

«We have been given one option by Entergy: a fossil fuel plant, Guidry said before the vote. «That’s the only thing they’ve analyzed. They haven’t analyzed alternatives. They said, ‘We don’t want to analyze transmission lines and upgrade to alternatives because it would cost too much money.’ «





Hollins helps her son as he is lifted into the bus.





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Two months later, The Lens reported that a PR firm hired by ENO had paid actors to attend a public hearing on the proposed power station. Wearing orange shirts that said, «Clean Energy. Good Jobs. Reliable Power, they testified in support of the plant without disclosing they were paid to be there. ENO claimed it had no knowledge about the actions of its PR firm. ENO’s president and CEO at the time, Charles Rice, later stepped down into a lower role with the company following the scandal. A revote on the plant was scuttled because ENO had already spent nearly $100 million on it. In February 2019, councilmembers approved a $5 million fine against ENO and allowed the company to continue construction.

When Hurricane Ida knocked out power citywide, councilmembers expected that the black-start technology would work. The plant survived the storm, but it did not quickly supply power to the city. More than 48 hours passed before ENO restored power to the first 11,500 New Orleans residents. Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said New Orleanians must learn why the plant failed at the very moment it was supposed to be used.

«This council must hold Entergy accountable for these promises, Burke said.

After the storm, Entergy Louisiana CEO Phillip May initially said the natural gas plant required power from a downed transmission line. Then, he explained the plant could start up by itself, but the company chose a different way to «rapidly restore power to more customers. Later, at a news conference, ENO’s CEO and president, Deanna Rodriguez, claimed the plant «worked as it was designed to work and served as a «big part of the solution. She said ENO hoped to get federal aid but wouldn’t rule out customers footing the bill for its post-Ida repairs.

Lawyers this week filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of residents against Entergy and its subsidiaries, calling recent blackouts deadly and avoidable. (Nappi said Entergy does not comment on pending litigation.)

Several councilmembers are now calling for a suspension of rate hikes until a post-Ida outage investigation is completed. Regulators could deny ENO’s rate increase for Ida repair costs if the company acted imprudently. Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said this storm could spur the drastic grid investments called for by then-Governor Jindal after Hurricane Gustav. How ambitious those upgrades might be, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell, depends on the funding provided by the Biden administration.

«It cannot be on the backs of ratepayers, Cantrell said. «We need the federal government to assist.

In a news release Tuesday, Entergy said that it would be open to selling ENO, merging it with another subsidiary, spinning it off as a stand-alone company or even allowing the city to run its own utility. If things remain the same, Councilmember Kristin Palmer says, ENO will face minimal financial risks for not building a stronger grid. Instead, New Orleans residents, who are both ratepayers and taxpayers, will pay the highest cost.

«The way it’s structured, we’ll just keep doing it the old way, Palmer said «The old way doesn’t work.





Lights are on in downtown New Orleans while Central City remains dark.





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The lights come on to show the damage


All around the city, families have returned home to the damage caused by the long outage. After a week near Atlanta, Hollins and her son returned to New Orleans. When she walked into her home, she was dismayed by the toll: the shattered windows boarded up, a hole in her kitchen ceiling and an empty refrigerator. She worried about how she would pay her energy bill, which would soon come due. Without food at home, she used her last few dollars to order a pizza for Carl.

Resting in her ICU bed at Tulane Medical Center, Wilma Banks wanted nothing more than to return home. And on Sept. 6, eight days after the power went out and three days into her hospital stay, she heard from her neighbors that the power had been restored. When she got home, the lights were on. But her air conditioner had stopped working, a grim reminder of her days without power.

«You think about all the backups, and they all failed, she said. «I don’t think it’s just Mother Nature doing it alone. This is neglect.

This article was co-reported with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.