Power has been restored for most of the area after a major outage across the city.
A spokesperson with Entergy said the cause of the outage was due to a load-shed order from MISO.
Entergy issued a statement on Monday stating they are continuing to work with MISO to understand the sudden shed load.
“Entergy continues to work with MISO to understand their directive yesterday to suddenly shed load. Our teams are continuing to monitor the high electricity demand across the region today. While at this time we do not anticipate the need to ask customers to conserve electricity or to implement any load-shedding measures, our teams remain prepared to respond quickly should conditions change.”
Around 4:50 p.m. on Sunday, it was reported that more than 18,000 people in the Uptown area lost power.
Soon after, Entergy reported more than 100,000 people without power in Mid-City, Lakeview, parts of Metairie and Terrytown lost power.
Plaquemines Parish and St. Bernard Parish also had more than 6,000 customers without power.
Power has also been restored for Cleco customers.
Entergy issued the following statement on the outage:
“Entergy New Orleans is currently subject to a load-shed order from MISO; approximately 52,000 customers are impacted. Our crews will work as quickly and safely as possible to restore service, as soon as we are clear to do so. Estimated time of restoration is unclear at this time, pending further updates from MISO.”
“Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans have started periodic power outages for its customers. The company is taking this action as directed by its reliability coordinator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, as a last resort and in order to prevent a more extensive, prolonged power outage that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid. Additionally, Entergy continues to follow a directive by MISO to reduce load.
Depending on conditions, individual customers may experience multiple outages. MISO is directing actions to be taken to restore the system to normal operations as quickly as possible and will direct Entergy to stop these outages as soon as the power shortfall no longer threatens the integrity of the rest of the electrical power system.
We continuously keep our communities informed throughout a storm. Customers are encouraged to download our free app for their smartphone at entergy.com/app and sign up for text alerts. Customers can also stay up to date by visiting the Entergy Storm Center/ Entergy Newsroom website. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or check for updates with your local news media like radio, television and newspapers. Visit entergy.com/loadshed for more information on balancing the electric supply and demand.
MISO comprises a pool of electricity generators and users that stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and as reliability coordinator is responsible for monitoring the portion of the electric grid it oversees and providing instructions to its members regarding actions needed to maintain reliability in that portion of the grid. In extreme circumstances, such actions may include these types outages currently occurring.”
City Council President and Utility Committee Chair JP Morrell, Council Vice President and Climate and Sustainability Chair Helena Moreno, and Public Service Commissioner for District 3 Davante Lewis issued a statement on the outage:
“Tonight, the regional transmission organization, MISO, ordered an immediate, forced, large-scale outage within the Entergy territory, leaving the utility with minimal notice. Customers in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes were affected, with the majority of impacts felt in New Orleans. We are not only frustrated by the lack of timely notification to both the utility and regulators, and it appears that New Orleans bore the brunt of this forced outage. The public deserves clear answers regarding the reasons behind this incident and the failure to provide timely alerts. We are urgently working to uncover the facts as power restoration efforts begin.”
