Hurricane Ida turns spotlight on Louisiana power grid issues

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Power out, precocious voltage lines connected the ground, weeks until energy is restored successful immoderate places: The dismal authorities of powerfulness successful Hurricane Ida's aftermath is simply a distressingly acquainted script for Entergy Corp., Louisiana's largest electrical utility.

The powerfulness institution has grappled with different wide outages aft Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike — not to notation Laura, Delta and Zeta — implicit the past decennary and a half. Other Louisiana and Gulf Coast utilities person faced akin disasters, sometimes needing to rebuild full networks. If anything, powerfulness restoration has gotten faster successful caller decades.

Still, critics question the enormity of the outage from Hurricane Ida and wherefore it is inactive truthful wide astir a week aft the tempest slammed into the authorities with 150 mph (241 kph) winds.

The concerns are astir acute successful the New Orleans area. All 8 of the transmission lines that nexus a portion of much than 900,000 radical to powerfulness from the extracurricular satellite failed during Ida — adjacent though tempest harm successful the country was little terrible than to the southbound and west. As of Friday, Entergy had restored 3 of the lines.

“For each 8 to fail, I’m conscionable wondering whether this could person been prevented and that’s what we’re going to beryllium looking into,” New Orleans City Council Member Helena Moreno, who oversees vigor regularisation successful the city, told WWL-TV.

While Entergy was heavy criticized for wide failures and dilatory restoration aft Hurricane Gustav successful 2008, galore are holding backmost from pointing fingers post-Ida. Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday that “nobody” is satisfied with a weekslong restoration process. “But I americium mindful that we conscionable had the strongest hurricane, astatine slightest tied for the strongest, that the authorities has ever experienced.”

However, Entergy professional Logan Burke of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a New Orleans radical that seeks little costs and greener energy, says the company's grid hasn't met expectations.

“We’ve been led to judge the transmission strategy was built for this level of wind, but it couldn’t person perchance been,” Burke said.

The isolation of metro New Orleans has ever made powerfulness proviso tricky, due to the fact that determination aren’t capable powerfulness plants wrong the country to conscionable needs. But regulators are apt to inquire wherefore Entergy didn’t usage a caller $210 cardinal works successful eastbound New Orleans to restart electricity.

When it was lobbying the metropolis to physique the installation — a process during which the institution hired actors to airs arsenic works supporters, prompting a $1 cardinal good — Entergy told officials the works would person what’s called “black start” capability, the quality to powerfulness up a blacked-out grid.

“It didn’t enactment arsenic advertised,” said Andrew Tuozzolo, Moreno’s main of staff.

The works does person achromatic commencement capability, but Entergy determined that a tiny disturbance could sound the works offline and that it would beryllium amended to usage it on with energy from elsewhere for greater stableness successful balancing the powerfulness load, said Entergy Louisiana CEO Philip May.

“If we person the quality to prosecute a way ... that allows america to bash this successful a much controlled and much robust way, that’s going to beryllium the way we pursue,” helium said.

Entergy’s transmission troubles were underscored erstwhile a precocious voltage operation crumpled beside the Mississippi River successful the New Orleans suburb of Avondale during Ida. The inferior says it builds caller transmission towers to withstand winds up to 150 mph, but the institution has said its oldest towers were lone designed to withstand 100 mph (160 kph) winds. It’s unclear however galore older towers remain.

Asked that question, Entergy spokesperson Jerry Nappi replied successful an email that the institution seeks to upgrade "priority structures” nether yearly plans and bring up damaged towers to “more resilient standards” erstwhile repairing oregon replacing them.

Flying debris hitting lines is often a bigger occupation than harm to towers, and the wide transmission strategy whitethorn person been knocked offline not by destroyed towers but arsenic circuits tripped. May has said the Avondale operation precocious passed an inspection and hadn’t been reinforced due to the fact that it was already “robustly engineered.”

Regulators could unit Entergy to further toughen its grid, lessening aboriginal risks from the much predominant and terrible storms wrought by clime change. Florida, for example, present requires each privately owned inferior to taxable an yearly program for making the electrical strategy much resistant to outages.

But upgrades outgo wealth — and wealth usually comes from customers.

“When you’re looking astatine thing similar tempest hardening, the important happening to retrieve is that yet it is going to beryllium the radical that are paying each of these costs,” said Ted Kury, manager of vigor studies astatine the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center.

Shouldering upgrade costs could load customers who are inactive paying for aged repairs. Louisiana Public Service Commission documents amusement Entergy customers extracurricular the metropolis of New Orleans person been charged astir $2 cardinal to rebuild lines and refill tempest harm reserve funds since 2005.

Customers volition beryllium paying for 2008 hurricanes Gustav and Ike done adjacent summer; and Isaac, which deed successful 2012, done 2026. Entergy wants different $2 cardinal to screen costs from Laura, Delta and Zeta past year. Repairing Ida's harm volition outgo inactive more.

With customers paying for aged damage, it’s hard to absorption connected investing for the future, Burke said.

“It sucks up each the clip and vigor and capableness arsenic costs commencement hitting bills,” helium said.

Some upgrade ideas person been rejected arsenic excessively costly oregon technically impractical. While Louisiana encourages burying section organisation lines successful caller developments, studies person suggested that burying precocious voltage transmission lines could outgo billions. There are besides questions astir feasibility, Kury said, due to the fact that underground transmission lines tin overheat and beryllium damaged by water.

David Dismukes enforcement manager of the Center for Energy Studies astatine Louisiana State University, said helium would "caution radical that redundancy comes with a large cost, and usually erstwhile you commencement moving and penciling the numbers out, the economics usually don’t enactment retired connected this benignant of thing.”

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Associated Press writer Melinda Deslatte contributed to this report.

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