Entergy New Orleans announces $1bn ‘Operation Gridiron’
Entergy New Orleans announced the launch of “Operation Gridiron,” a $1 billion power infrastructure programme designed to make the city’s grid stronger and to better prepare for more frequent, stronger storms.
The “Operation: Gridiron” (OGI) plan was developed in response to a request by the New Orleans City Council following Hurricane Ida in 2021. The proposal is before the City Council for their consideration and approval.
If approved, Entergy says its plan will:
- Invest $1 billion in the grid over 10 years in two, 5-year phases
- Cut outage times by more than half and save customers millions of dollars
- Upgrade thousands of poles to withstand 150 mph winds
- Harden 650 miles (1046km) of power lines
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At a press conference announcing the event, Entergy New Orleans President and CEO Deanna Rodriguez responded to questions concerning how the $1 billion investment would be paid for.
“For the first five years, we’re asking for a recovery of that from customers,” Rodriguez said, adding that that additional funding could be obtained through grants from the Department of Energy (DOE) or other federal funds.
Entergy’s plan was mentioned by the DOE as part of a broader, $3.5 billion nationwide investment plan to strengthen the grid, create microgrids, and enable more renewable energy generation. Under this plan, Entergy New Orleans will also roll out a backup battery project meant to reduce energy bills for disadvantaged customers.
Originally published by Sean Wolfe on Power Grid.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.