NEW ORLEANS – On Oct. 17, Entergy New Orleans President and CEO Deanna Rodriguez announced that the utility is sending its “Operation Gridiron” proposal to the New Orleans City Council for review. The $1 billion power infrastructure program is designed to make the city’s grid stronger in the face of more frequent, stronger storms.
“In the coming weeks, you will see ‘Operation: Gridiron’ signs popping up all over the City,” said Rodriguez in a press release. “Each of these signs marks the location of projects that will strengthen our energy infrastructure in these neighborhoods to enable us to keep the lights on longer when a storm hits, and to restore power more quickly when it is disrupted.”
A spokesperson for the utility said that if Operation: Gridiron is approved it will provide New Orleans with “one of the most storm-ready power infrastructures in the United States.”
Over a decade, Entergy hopes to spend $1 billion upgrading thousands of poles to withstand 150 mph winds and “hardening” 650 miles of power lines. By doing this, the utility says it can cut outage times by more than half, saving customers millions of dollars.
Entergy will be meeting directly with residents in the coming weeks at town hall events in each council district, beginning tonight at Dillard University in District D.
The City Council will no doubt want details about how much the plan will increase costs for Entergy ratepayers in the coming years. The utility said if the plan is approved the cost to ratepayers would gradually rise from 20 cents more per month in 2024 to $11.86 per month in 2028.
