SWBNO Power Complex
The Bedrock of New Orleans' Water Future
The Power Complex represents a significant investment in the future of New Orleans. This new power infrastructure will provide reliable, cost-effective electricity for the drinking water and drainage systems that serve our city.
What is the Power Complex?
When the Power Complex comes online in summer 2025, it will include the following:
A dedicated substation to pull power directly from Entergy's grid.
Static frequency changers to convert Entergy’s modern power (60-Hz) to the type of electricity our older pumps can use (25-Hz)
One modern turbine generator to produce reliable, efficient backup power.
As a result, residents can have peace of mind that the drainage pumps are working.
Why do we need a Power Complex?
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 operate. 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 modern 60-Hz – so we have had to generate it ourselves.
Generating our own power is not an efficient way to operate. It will be better to convert 60-Hz power directly from Entergy to 25-Hz power for our pumping needs, and the Power Complex will allow us to do just that. We will be able to rely on Entergy’s transmission grid and modernize our systems.
Construction Status
We are making good progress on the Power Complex and expect to complete construction by summer 2025, just in time for peak hurricane season.
Here’s what’s been done so far:
- Dedicated Entergy Substation: Completed in late 2023.
- Utility Rack: Nearly completed, and will connect the substation to our operations center.
We are in the process of:
- Constructing a water line.
- Installing equipment foundations.
- Setting up equipment on those foundations.
- Connecting the equipment to our system.
Future Improvements
We are working to secure additional funding that will support further expansion of the Power Complex after it comes online. The goal is to provide even more redundancy and make our services that much more reliable. These upgrades would include:
- A larger electrical switchgear— To power more drinking water pumps from the Entergy substation, improving reliability overall.
- A State-of-the-Art Operations Center— To give our staff better tools and space for managing systems and optimized coordination.
These future improvements are important to the resilience and reliability of our systems. Without them, we will still have to rely on some aging equipment.
To date, SWBNO has received the following funding for this project:
- $55M in State Capital Outlay.
- $160M in additional funds from other federal and local sources.
These funding sources are also supplemented by our own bonds and system funds.
We are actively seeking additional funding to support the necessary future improvements to the Power Complex.
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.