NEW ORLEANS
- At the regularly scheduled Council meeting today, August 10, 2017, the Council approved Resolution R-17-427, which establishes a docket for the Council's investigation of Entergy New Orleans' (ENO) outages and reliability performance, distribution O&M staffing and scheduling, and to consider the establishment of minimum reliability standards for ENO going forward.
The resolution, authored by District "D" Councilmember Jared Brossett, and the docket
are the result of a letter Councilmember Brossett sent to ENO on June 8, 2017, voicing concerns over ongoing outages and the high volume of customer complaints received from constituents. That letter requested ENO provide detailed outage information including times, duration and causes.
On July 10, ENO responded to Councilmember Brossett's letter with detailed statistical reliability and outage data for the period beginning June 1, 2016, through May 31, 2017. At the direction of Councilmember Brossett, the Council's technical advisors performed an initial analysis of ENO's detailed reliability and outage data. Among the advisors' findings:
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During the Analysis Period, ENO sustained a total of 2599 outages from all causes under all types of weather conditions, of which 1462 of the outages occurred throughout ENO's system during fair weather.
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A breakdown of ENO outages by Councilmanic District over the Analysis Period showed:
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District D: 728 outages (approximately 28 percent)
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District E: 732 outages (approximately 28 percent); and
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The remainder of Councilmanic Districts: 1,139 or 44 percent.
Within 30 days of the adoption of this resolution, the Council's technical advisors are directed to file with the Council and all parties the preliminary results of their analysis of ENO's outages and ENO's reliability performance. Within 60 days of ENO's receipt of the technical advisors analysis, it directs ENO to file with the Council its formal plans, budgets, and schedules for improving the reliability performance of its distribution system, and ENO's recommended minimum reliability performance standards for monitoring and evaluation by the Council and its advisors.
Finally, the resolution states that a public hearing before the UCTTC will be held to consider appropriate action regarding the establishment of minimum reliability performance standards for ENO, and submittal of a recommendation to the Council for its consideration.
"This resolution is the result of ongoing and tireless efforts by myself and my fellow Councilmembers to improve the reliability of service in District "D" and throughout the entire City," said Councilmember Brossett. "This represents an important step in addressing customer concerns and ultimately creating a more efficient and advantageous system."
