Entergy New Orleans President and CEO Deanna Rodriguez has announced the launch of “Operation Gridiron,” an ambitious power infrastructure program designed to make the city’s grid stronger and to better prepare our community for more frequent, stronger storms.
“In the coming weeks, you will see ‘Operation: Gridiron’ signs popping up all over the City,” said Rodriguez. “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.”
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, Operation: Gridiron will provide New Orleans with one of the most storm-ready power infrastructures in the United States, according to Rodriguez. Under this plan, Entergy will be:
- Investing $1 billion in our grid over 10 years in two, 5-year phases
- Cutting outage times by more than half and saving customers millions of dollars
- Upgrading thousands of poles to withstand 150 mph winds
- Hardening 650 miles of power lines
- Performing responsible work with full transparency, empowering the community to hold us accountable for the work being done
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.
