Keeping the Lights On, Most of the Time
Entergy New Orleans is the utility company that provides electricity to the Crescent City, and it does so with the consistency of a jazz musician who shows up late to the gig, plays brilliantly for twenty minutes, then disappears for a smoke break. The power is on. Until it is not. And when it is not, you will discover just how quickly a house in South Louisiana becomes uninhabitable without air conditioning.
The relationship between New Orleans and Entergy is the kind of relationship where both parties know it is not working but neither can leave. The city needs electricity. Entergy is the only provider. This monopoly arrangement has produced decades of frustration, rate hikes, and the particular rage that comes from watching your power bill climb while your power reliability does not.
The Outage Culture
Power outages in New Orleans are not events. They are a lifestyle. A stiff breeze can knock out power to a neighborhood. A thunderstorm can darken half the city. A hurricane can leave you without electricity for weeks. And sometimes, on a perfectly clear Tuesday afternoon with no weather to speak of, the lights just go out, and nobody can explain why, and you sit in the dark and think about what you did to deserve this.
The infrastructure is the problem, or at least a significant part of it. New Orleans has an aging grid running through a city full of massive oak trees whose roots and branches have an adversarial relationship with power lines. Every storm becomes a battle between trees and wires, and the trees usually win. Entergy trims branches and replaces poles, but the fundamental challenge of delivering electricity through a canopy of century-old live oaks is one that no amount of maintenance can fully solve.
The Bill
If the outages are maddening, the bills are bewildering. Entergy rates in New Orleans are among the highest in the region, a fact that is especially painful given the frequency of service interruptions. The company has periodically sought — and received — rate increases from the City Council, which serves as the regulatory body for the utility. These proceedings are contentious affairs where Entergy presents its case for needing more money, residents present their case for wanting reliable power at a reasonable price, and the Council tries to split the difference in a way that satisfies nobody.
The company has also faced scrutiny for its practices, including the revelation that it paid actors to attend a City Council meeting and speak in favor of a new gas-fired power plant. That episode became a symbol of everything people distrust about the utility — the sense that the company prioritizes its own interests over the community it serves.
The Generator Economy
New Orleanians have adapted to Entergy the way they adapt to everything else: with ingenuity and dark humor. The generator has become essential home equipment, as important as a refrigerator or a stove. After every major storm, the sound of generators humming through the neighborhood becomes the soundtrack of recovery. People swap generator tips the way they swap recipes. The whole-house generator has become a status symbol, the ultimate admission that you have given up on the grid and decided to handle things yourself. Entergy keeps the city powered. Mostly. When it feels like it. And New Orleanians keep paying the bill, because the alternative is darkness, and there is too much to do in this city to sit in the dark.
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