Mayor LaToya Cantrell | Mayor LaToya Cantrell Official Photo
Mayor LaToya Cantrell | Mayor LaToya Cantrell Official Photo
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced this week that it awarded two major grant awards to Entergy New Orleans (ENO) and the State of Louisiana through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program.
“These awards for Entergy New Orleans and the State of Louisiana mark a major, positive step for our community following the destruction and long-term outages from Hurricane Ida just over two years ago,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “This federal funding will allow Entergy to strengthen our grid infrastructure in the face of increasingly stronger storms, while adding critical solar backup storage power. Funding for the State's HERO project will expand residential access to critical solar-powered resilience hubs, including at City and NORD facilities. I want to thank our partners in Louisiana's Federal Delegation who voted to make this funding available, and to the Biden Administration for the vote of confidence to expand the innovative resilience work being pioneered here in New Orleans.”
ENO was awarded $55 million for their proposal to strengthen their transmission and distribution lines in New Orleans East, as well as add solar battery backup systems. The State of Louisiana’s Hubs for Energy Resilient Operations (HERO) project was awarded $250 million for a $500 million overall project to greatly expand solar powered community resilience hubs across the state.
The City of New Orleans collaborated with both ENO and the State on their successful applications. The City will partner with ENO on workforce development with their award, while funding from the State’s HERO project will help fund solar and battery installation on several critical City and NORD facilities.
New Orleans faces an array of environmental challenges, including increasingly stronger hurricanes and rainfall events, soil subsidence, coastal erosion and extreme heat. Both the City’s Climate Action Plan and Hazard Mitigation Plan call for an expansion of solar as a power source to lower our carbon footprint while increasing energy resilience.
“The GRIP program is bringing real results to Louisiana by addressing critical infrastructure challenges,” said Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. (LA-02). “We aren’t just fortifying our state’s electric grid against the escalating impacts of climate change, we are also fostering community resilience and committing to social equity. This funding is a beacon of progress, demonstrating a comprehensive and inclusive approach to modernizing infrastructure for a sustainable and resilient future. Louisiana continues to experience the positive impacts of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I will continue to partner with Secretary Granholm and the Biden-Harris Administration on the implementation of these transformative investments.”
“When writing the Infrastructure Law, strengthening the resiliency of the electricity grid was top of mind," said Louisiana Senator Dr. Bill Cassidy. "By having a seat at the table, Louisiana is receiving the money needed to keep our lights on after the next storm hits."
“Extended power outages are one of the biggest threats to our communities as they respond to and recover from hurricanes and natural disasters,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards. “This program will help keep the power on after storms at important community locations, eliminating some of the challenges that follow extreme weather—staying healthy and cool, keeping in touch with loved ones and accessing other services. This significant $500 million award means we can make a difference in multiple communities across our state. I would like to thank the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as Rep. Troy Carter, Sen. Bill Cassidy and President Biden for their support of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that makes this important work possible.”
“This is a huge win for our customers, for our community, and for the City of New Orleans,” said ENO President and CEO Deanna Rodriguez. “Federal grant funds at this scale will enable us to make our grid stronger — to keep the lights on longer when storms threaten in the future and to restore power more quickly when service is interrupted. These funds will help offset the cost burden on our customers. We are deeply grateful to the DOE and to the Mayor, to the City Council and everyone who supported our application.”
The awards for ENO and the State of Louisiana were the two projects awarded in Louisiana. DOE announced $3.46 billion in total GRIP awards for 58 projects across 44 states to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability across America. Funded by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these projects will leverage more than $8 billion in federal and private investments to deliver affordable, clean electricity to all Americans and ensure that communities across the nation have a reliable grid that is prepared for extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis. More information can be found here.
The State’s HERO project also includes the Louisiana State Energy Office, Louisiana Public Service Commission, Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Center for Planning Excellence, CLECO Power, Entergy Louisiana, ENO, NextGen Energy Partners, Southwestern Electric Power Company, Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, The Accelerate Group, Together Louisiana, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Xavier University of Louisiana. More info on the HERO award can be found here.
ENO will be working with several of its community partners, like the New Orleans Career Center, the First72+ and Delgado Community College, on workforce development programs, as well as its Community Benefits Advisory Board to ensure that customers in the project area are kept abreast of construction updates and benefits for the New Orleans East community. More information on the GRIP award for Entergy New Orleans can be found here.
Mayor Cantrell’s Federal Infrastructure Task Force supported each proposal. The City created the multi-departmental Federal Infrastructure Task Force in January 2022 to analyze infrastructure needs within the City and secure funding from new federal infrastructure and climate funding programs. So far, the Task Force has been successful on 10 grant applications for the City, totaling nearly $17 million. The Task Force has partnered or supported another approximately two dozen successful applications from organizations and government agencies in the city, region and state, with awards totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
Original source can be found here.