At the meeting, there was more talk about outages and the Council kicked off the Integrated Resource Planning process, in which Entergy New Orleans and stakeholders will assess how Entergy will meet the city’s future energy needs.
In a unanimous vote, the Council approved a resolution that would modernize the Integrated Resource Plan rules to reflect innovative distributed energy resource (DERs) technologies that have the potential to “ serve customers, reduce system costs, improve reliability, or provide alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure” (docket UD-26-01).
Every three years, Entergy New Orleans (ENO) is required to work with regulators and other stakeholders to develop an Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, to assess how it will meet future energy needs over the next twenty years.
For instance, does Entergy want to invest in costly, and dirty natural gas generation in favor of renewables? Is Entergy investing enough in energy efficiency programs that can lower costs for residents and businesses? The goal of the IRP is to select the best mix of energy resources—but the big question is, best for whom?
Entergy will model different combinations of resources to determine the best mix of demand-side (such as energy efficiency, weatherization, and energy storage) and supply-side (such as a gas or fossil fuel-fired power plant or solar farm), options that it will use to economically and efficiently meet electricity demand. The planning process also models various strategies and takes into account state and federal policy changes, local climate goals, and established standards. Put together, these models explore different future outcomes and are used to determine the optimal mix of resources needed to meet our energy needs.
DERs, like battery storage, microgrids, and community and balcony solar have the potential to help meet electricity demand while also improving resiliency during storms and power outages. The Alliance has pushed for such resources in the past, including advocating for a program that would provide upfront incentives for batteries that would be sited in homes, community centers, restaurants, senior centers and other commercial spaces. The batteries would be networked together into a “virtual power plant” (VPP) to support the grid.
This specific resolution was about modernizing and updating IRP rules to reflect how the electric system is changing. Since the existing rules were adopted in 2017, “DERs” have evolved significantly, and The Alliance applauds the Council for ensuring these critical resources are included in the IRP process.
The committee then unanimously voted to approve a resolution establishing a procedural schedule for the 2027 Integrated Resource Plan, setting the process in motion (docket UD-26-02).
During the last IRP process, modeling revealed that policies that The Alliance and our allies in the Energy Future New Orleans (EFNO) Coalition have championed, such as the city’s Renewable and Clean Portfolio standard requiring ENO to generate an escalating percentage of its power from renewable energy, are ensuring the most affordable sources of generation for New Orleans.
Utilities often prioritize profits, but organizations like the Alliance for Affordable Energy are fighting to ensure ENO’s plan prioritizes residents by investing in affordable, clean options like energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The IRP process invites public input, making it a great opportunity for you to have a say in decisions that will shape energy affordability, reliability, and sustainability in our community. The committee emphasized the importance of transparency and public participation during the hearing, and we’ll be highlighting ways you can get involved as the process moves forward. The first public meeting in this process will be held by November 18th of this year.
For more background on the IRP process, check out our previous Teach-In and blog:
ENO also provided an update on the widespread power outages that occurred across the city over the weekend on August 21 and 22.
More than 14,000 New Orleans customers were left without power after severe thunderstorms brought high winds and quarter-sized hail throughout the region.
While every district experienced outages, those in Algiers were hit particularly hard. More than 6,500 residents were left in the dark from Friday evening well into Saturday, with many suffering for more than 24 hours during one of the hottest days of the year. Some residents, after having their power temporarily restored, then experienced a second outage once ENO returned to conduct more permanent repairs.
To add insult to injury, many Algiers residents were left with no notice of the outage due to what ENO representatives called a “technical issue” with their communications system. Representatives said normally, residents will receive an alert about the outage, an update with how long restoration may take, and a final alert that power has been restored. For those in Algiers, those alerts came to some residents eleven hours after the outage began.
But it gets worse. As one Algiers resident told the council, she reached out to ENO to report the outage via multiple texts and phone calls. Each time, she was told she was not, in fact, experiencing an outage. You can imagine the frustration one may feel, sitting in an overheated room with no air conditioning, no lights, and being told the power is working just fine.
“This is unacceptable for seniors, people who are on medical apparatuses like oxygen, sleep [apnea] machines, those on medications who need refrigeration,” the resident added.
While ENO blamed downed trees and lightning for the damage to power lines and poles, Climate Committee Chairwoman Aimee McCarron noted that since January, “not a day [has gone] by that Entergy has not had a power outage.” As The Alliance has said repeatedly, more must be done to strengthen and build resilience into our electric system.
This weekends’ outages came after last month’s meeting where representatives from ENO presented on its hurricane preparedness strategies and the “lessons learned” during Tropical Storm Arthur. The Council asked hard questions about persistent outages in New Orleans East, the Venetian Isles, and North Kenilworth, in addition to questions about equipment upgrades like replaced poles and monitoring technology that have yet to meaningfully mitigate outages.
As part of what Entergy is calling its “Resilience Plan,” the utility has been working on “grid hardening,” which is the process of strengthening the electric grid so that it is better prepared to withstand extreme weather conditions. Grid hardening can refer to many different types of ‘hardening’ strategies like vegetation management (cutting back trees around power lines), undergrounding ( burying power lines underground), or smart tech installations (which includes varying technologies to increase grid resilience and reliability). The Alliance is supportive of smart investments in our grid as they should help reduce the risk of an outage like the city experienced over the weekend.
Phase 1 of the Resilience Plan was approved by the Council in 2024 and included $100 million for grid hardening investments (docket UD-21-03).
Phase 1 includes ~60 projects, strengthening more than 3,000 structures and upgrading 63 miles of electric lines. These projects all had broad stakeholder consensus and support. Importantly, Phase 1 was approved without immediate bill impacts because the Council used settlement funds (from the Grand Gulf/SERI settlement) and a DOE grant.
So far ENO has completed 14 planned resiliency projects approved in Phase 1, with 7 more under construction, and says all 32 will be completed by the year’s end.
At the end of 2025, ENO submitted an application requesting approval from the Council to begin Phase 2 of its “Resilience Plan,” asking for an additional $400 million from customers to strengthen the city’s electric grid.
The application to begin Phase 2 is still currently under review by the Council. The Alliance is participating in the proceedings (docket UD-21-03) to advocate for investments that bring the greatest benefits to ratepayers and the community and to ensure that the costs of such investments are not unfairly placed on residents. We will continue to submit recommendations and advocate for a resilience plan and electric grid that puts people first.
Climate change is making storms more intense and more costly, and the status quo is failing too many residents. Investing in stronger poles, hardened lines, and smarter system design is necessary to reduce outages and lower long-term storm costs.
But at a time when bills are already high, it is critical that every dollar invested delivers real, measurable benefits for the people of New Orleans.
AAE has consistently supported meaningful, well-designed grid hardening that delivers benefits to the community, especially to those most vulnerable. But what projects we prioritize, how we pay for grid hardening, and who bears the cost, matters just as much as whether these investments happen at all.
As we’ve said before, the fact of the matter is that New Orleanians have been asked to pay higher utility bills for poorer services for many years, to the point where electricity is unaffordable for many households. New Orleans residents must not be made to bear the full cost of resilience and storm hardening measures that Entergy should have undertaken years ago.
Last month, the Council approved a resolution that sets a schedule for the Council to review the reliability standards it established in 2023 (docket UD-17-04). Such standards would help ensure the Council can hold Entergy accountable when services fall short.
Since the standards were adopted, Entergy has technically been meeting them, yet this weekend’s outage is a great example of why the standards need to be strengthened, as residents are still left wondering whether the lights will go out every time there’s a storm. The Alliance has repeatedly brought this issue to the Council’s attention and urged them to strengthen the reliability standards; the current standards cannot ensure accountability. We were glad to see the Council initiate a review of the reliability standards last month.
The outages this weekend add more fuel to fire; Entergy needs to be held accountable for its poor service. Credits for outages aren’t just compensation for residents’ troubles; for many whose food has spoiled or who suffer from outage-related medical issues, those credits are lifesaving. The Council can do more to increase reliability and resilience by strengthening reliability standards and expanding battery storage.
