Entergy New Orleans’ leadership team today came before the New Orleans City Council to provide updates on three key priorities: ongoing reliability improvements in the North Kenilworth neighborhood of New Orleans East, the operation and maintenance of the underground electric system in the French Quarter, and the company’s preparedness for the 2026 hurricane season as Tropical Storm Bertha moves through the Gulf of Mexico.

The discussion reinforced our commitment to delivering safe, reliable electric service through proactive investments, transparent communication and year-round planning.

Strengthening reliability in New Orleans East and across the city

Entergy New Orleans is making significant investments to improve electric reliability in the North Kenilworth neighborhood following recent outages. While recent service interruptions accelerated work in the area, these improvements are part of a broader strategy to strengthen the electric grid throughout New Orleans.

Following the outages, crews completed comprehensive end-to-end inspections of the neighborhood’s underground system, examining 80 submersible vaults. Using thermal imaging technology, they identified and addressed immediate reliability concerns while identifying cable connections that had contributed to recent outages.

We mobilized more than 100 additional employees and contractors, including specialized underground crews from across multiple states, to work alongside local lineworkers to make the improvements as quickly and safely as possible. These crews installed almost 30,000 feet of continuous conduit and underground cable throughout the neighborhood and completed the replacement of the connections that were causing power outages.

While enhancing reliability in North Kenilworth neighborhood remains a priority, we have been investing in reliability improvements in every City Council district. Through our Accelerated Resilience Plan and ongoing reliability upgrades, we are working to strengthen the electric grid by replacing aging infrastructure, hardening the system against severe weather and modernizing equipment to reduce outages and improve restoration times. We appreciate our customers’ patience as our trucks have moved from street to street, repairing and rebuilding parts of the underground grid.

Learn about our reliability initiatives and read more about our reliability work across the city.

A reliability update for customers in New Orleans East

Entergy New Orleans strengthens grid reliability through critical transmission upgrades

Entergy New Orleans improves reliability in New Orleans East

Maintaining the French Quarter’s unique underground electric system

The French Quarter is one of New Orleans’ most distinctive neighborhoods, and its electric system is equally unique. Unlike most parts of the city, much of the area’s electrical infrastructure operates underground. Transformers and other electrical equipment are housed inside underground vaults that require specialized maintenance, inspections and highly trained employees to safely operate and maintain them.

We employ specialized crews assigned specifically to the underground network serving the French Quarter and Central Business District. These crews perform two comprehensive end-to-end inspections of every vault and its equipment each year, in addition to performing inspections when maintenance work is completed.

Because the equipment is below ground, heavy rain often fills the vaults with water. Crews routinely inspect drainage and pumping systems to ensure they are operating properly while also evaluating the condition of electrical equipment. The underground environment also presents additional challenges, including exposure to water, debris and other materials that can enter through street grates, as well as the presence of other utilities sharing the same underground space.

Our crews responded immediately on the evening of July 4, followed by a thorough inspection of the affected underground equipment in the French Quarter. Because the fire significantly damaged the equipment, we are not able to determine what specifically caused the issue.

Specialized crews, who are trained to work on this unique part of the grid, are continuously inspecting these vaults and the equipment in them throughout the year. We have an established multi-year transformer replacement program that’s underway, and have also begun to install new technology that will help us monitor the system in real time. We thank our customers for their patience.

Ready for hurricane season

As Tropical Storm Bertha approaches, we are closely monitoring conditions while executing the company’s year-round storm preparedness plan.

Preparation is one of the most important factors in a successful storm response. Prior to hurricane season, every employee is assigned a storm role and participates in training and exercises designed to prepare employees for severe weather.

Operations, customer service, communications, and regulatory teams regularly conduct storm drills to ensure they are ready to restore power, communicate with customers, coordinate logistics, secure materials and maintain essential business operations before, during and after a storm.

Entergy New Orleans remains committed to strengthening the electric grid, investing in resilient infrastructure and preparing year-round to provide safe, reliable service for customers across the city.

Currently, Entergy New Orleans is midway through a grid-hardening initiative that will upgrade nearly 3,100 individual structures by the end of this year. Work is being done in every district to make our grid stronger and to make the community we serve more safe.

Visit our Storm Center website.

Read more about storm preparedness.

Entergy New Orleans hosts storm drill to strengthen hurricane preparedness

Entergy prepares for the 2025 hurricane season with storm drill