The Bedrock of New Orleans' Water Future
The Power Complex is an under-construction facility that will provide reliable, cost-effective electricity to the equipment in the drinking water and drainage systems that serve New Orleans. The development, design, and construction of the Power Complex is a large, two-phased infrastructure program.
Partial completion to allow basic use of Entergy grid power by hurricane season 2025.
A dedicated substation to draw power directly from Entergy's transmission grid.
Two of three static frequency changers to convert Entergy’s modern power to the type of electricity our older pumps can use. (The installation of the remaining static frequency changer is funding dependent.)
One modern turbine generator to produce reliable, efficient backup power.
Timeline and completion pending funding.
With even the partial opening of the Power Complex, our customers can have more confidence that power will be available to operate our water and drainage pumps during storms.
You know the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) as a water, wastewater, and drainage utility. But you might not know that behind the scenes, we're also our own power utility.
Because New Orleans is flat, water does not flow through pipes or canals on its own. Our drinking water, wastewater, and drainage systems rely on large pumps, and those pumps need electricity. To complicate matters, many of our pumps are over a century old. They use a special form of electricity that Entergy does not produce – 25 Hz instead of 60 Hz – so we have had to generate it ourselves.
Although SWBNO has produced its own power for generations, it is not an efficient way to operate. We are excited for the resources to construct a modern Power Complex that will place power generation for our utility in the hands of a true power utility, Entergy.
Construction on the Power Complex continues. The Entergy substation was substantially completed in Q4 2023, and SWBNO continues construction on the utility rack, equipment foundations and other aspects of Phase 1. Progress is visible onsite as the substation construction is complete, the steel spans for the utility rack are being erected, and piles for equipment foundations are being driven. We anticipate Phase 1, which will enable use of the substation power on a daily basis, will be complete by summer 2025.
SWBNO is grateful for the allocation of $15 million in Capital Outlay funds toward phase one of the Power Complex at the end of the 2023 legislative session. We have also recently received $10 million from the Fair Share fund.
While we are pleased to have partial funding to move this project forward, we are not satisfied with the partial completion of the Power Complex. Ideally, we would be able to complete phase two (build the facility’s operations center) for optimal use of the investment.
Customer safety is our top priority, and this project is critical for the resilience of New Orleans. We are dedicated to and remain steadfast in searching for additional funding to support its full buildout.