New Orleans Faces Widespread Power Outage as 100,000 Customers Lose Electricity

Overview of the Outage

A significant power outage hit New Orleans on Sunday, impacting over 100,000 customers of Entergy New Orleans across several regions, including the Eastbank, St. Bernard Parish, Metairie, and portions of Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. The outage originated from a load shedding event ordered by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) at approximately 4:30 PM CDT.

Details of the Incident

New Orleans City Councilmember Joseph Giarrusso pointed out that Entergy received just a three-minute warning prior to the load shedding. He expressed his concerns about MISO's intentions by posing a critical question on X, formerly Twitter: "According to Entergy, this is a load shed event as directed by MISO. That means it is intentional. The question is why?"

This load shedding was executed as a precaution against an overloaded grid where the demand for electricity surpassed the supply. Entergy reported the impact of the outage: 52,000 customers in Orleans Parish, 36,000 in Jefferson Parish, 6,000 in St. Bernard Parish, and 6,500 in Plaquemines Parish. The service disruption also extended to customers of Cleco on the north shore, affecting numerous neighborhoods such as Lakeview, Gentilly, Mid-City, Uptown, Treme, Marigny, and the Garden District.

Restoration and Recovery

At 5:00 PM CDT, Entergy's outage map showed that a total of 102,771 customers were affected, resulting in traffic lights malfunctioning at various critical intersections. Following the outage, crews began working to restore power efficiently and safely. Although segments of Uptown regained electricity by 6:30 PM CDT with full restoration anticipated by 7:00 PM, delays persisted in other areas like St. Bernard.

Accountability and Criticism

The three-minute notification by MISO has raised questions among city officials, including Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis. He emphasized that the outage stemmed from a combination of issues: one Entergy generator was down for planned maintenance, while another generator unexpectedly failed, coupled with higher-than-forecasted power demand due to elevated temperatures. Lewis pondered MISO’s accuracy in predicting the energy needs: "Why was the forecasting off?"

Adding to the complexity, River Bend Station, a nuclear power plant in St. Francisville, tripped offline unexpectedly. This coincided with the scheduled outage of Waterford 3 in Killona, which further exacerbated the situation as the regional grid struggled to fulfill demand.

Future Considerations and Hearings

The New Orleans City Council plans to hold a hearing to investigate the underlying causes of the outage, inviting Entergy and MISO for explanations. Councilman JP Morrell indicated that the disproportionate number of outages in New Orleans—over 50,000 compared to 38,500 in Jefferson Parish—demands scrutiny. This follow-up is particularly pertinent given a previous incident during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, when New Orleans faced similar power cutbacks.

Morrell expressed skepticism about the reliability of the current power management system, drawing parallels to previous outages and questioning why decisions were made to assign such significant power losses to the city.

Proposed Solutions

In light of this incident, Commissioner Lewis suggested that the integration of more renewable energy sources, such as solar and battery storage, could potentially mitigate the risk of future outages and help manage demand more effectively.

Conclusion

By Monday morning, power was fully restored, but the incident highlighted concerning vulnerabilities within the regional power grid, prompting calls for greater accountability and improved forecasting measures. Entergy has since issued apologies to customers affected by the outage, indicating that such controlled outages are measures of last resort initiated to protect the grid's overall reliability.