Last May, over Memorial Day weekend, there was a load shedding event in New Orleans that left some residents of the city without power for 3.5 hours. This happened when the regional grid operator, known as the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, felt it had no choice but to shut the grid down in the city to avoid a catastrophic failure that could have damaged critical infrastructure and led to prolonged and costly outage.
The knee-jerk reaction in New Orleans was to blame Entergy. Many of the company’s usual critics declared the load shed occurred because of a plot by the utility to restrict building transmission from MISO South (where we live in New Orleans) to MISO North. These critics claim Entergy puts roadblocks to north/south transmission to force residents of Louisiana to buy electricity from them – and not from generators outside the state.
While saying Entergy is unconcerned with profits is false, so is the assertion that the solution to issues like the May load shed can be easily resolved with north/south transmission. So called experts that offer this solution, are knowingly leaving out key pieces of information that complicate the situation. Most importantly, ask yourself: “To ensure we have reliable electricity in Louisiana, should we be spending precious infrastructure dollars – the customers must pay for in their electric bills – on long-term projects to connect us to MISO North, or on strengthening the grid around us to make us more resilient to storms and severe weather?”
Obviously, the right answer is to focus on strengthening our grid in Louisiana, and at the same time exploring transmission options that can be long-term strategies to ensure we have resource adequacy.
Here’s the tick-tock of what took place last May.
The May outage didn’t happen because Louisiana ran out of electricity. It happened because we ran out of options.
When demand surged, South Louisiana hit two limits at the same time:
- Not enough power available close to where it’s used
- Not enough transmission capacity to pull power quickly from MISO North
Either of these problems on its own is stressful. Together, they leave grid operators with one remaining tool: cut load.
Back-Up Power Is Far Away
New Orleans mostly depends on electricity produced elsewhere. Only about 14 percent of Louisiana’s total electricity comes from out of state, which means most of what we rely on is relatively close.
That works until it doesn’t.
Local generation and flexible resources act as shock absorbers. When demand spikes or equipment falters, they give operators breathing room. Without them, the system assumes that outside power can arrive instantly and reliably, even though that outside supply represents a limited share of what we use.
That assumption collapses during extreme heat, regional congestion, or equipment outages, precisely when every available megawatt matters most.
The Highway Has a Choke Point
Louisiana sits inside MISO, a regional grid designed to share power across 15 states. That scale is a strength, but only if electricity can move freely within it.
South Louisiana is a classic load pocket. Demand is dense. Transmission pathways are thin. When the grid is stressed, power exists in MISO North but cannot reach us fast enough to avoid load shedding.
Transmission matters. But it is not fast, simple, or immune to the same climate pressures stressing the rest of the grid.
This Is Not Either-Or. It Is First-Then.
A resilient grid needs both transmission and local resources. Pretending otherwise is unserious.
What is serious is acknowledging limits. We do not have infinite money, infinite time, or infinite construction capacity. Choices must be sequenced.
With those constraints, local investment must come first.
Why Local Wins the First-Dollar Test
Transmission runs on a long clock
Major transmission projects take a decade or more from planning to completion. That timeline collides with rising summer peaks, more frequent heat waves, and aging infrastructure already under strain.
The north isn’t a bottomless reserve
MISO North is facing its own load stress from data centers, manufacturing, and electrification. Betting South Louisiana’s reliability on surplus power elsewhere assumes that surplus will always exist. That assumption is getting weaker, not stronger.
Local resources work immediately
More power generation, storage, demand flexibility, and distributed resources respond where power is needed, when it’s needed. They reduce the likelihood and severity of load shedding now, not ten years from now.
They also buy time for transmission to be built thoughtfully rather than rushed after failure.
A Short Rebuttal to “Just Build Transmission”
The argument sounds clean. It isn’t.
“Transmission is cheaper.”
Only if you ignore the cost of outages, emergency actions, and congestion while waiting a decade for projects to come online. Also, long-distance transmission typically loses 5 to 8 percent of electricity between generator and customer, and losses increase as lines get longer and more congested. When power must travel hundreds of miles from MISO North into South Louisiana, ratepayers are paying for electricity that never arrives.
“Local resources are inefficient.”
Inefficiency is shedding 10,000 customers when power exists but can’t reach them.
“Transmission solves everything.”
Transmission moves power. It does not create it, store it, or guarantee availability during region-wide stress.
“We can’t afford both.”
We can’t afford to keep paying for failures while waiting for one solution to arrive.
The Sensible Sequence
- First, stabilize the system close to load.
- Then, expand transmission deliberately and strategically.
- Stop treating studies as substitutes for assets.
- Transmission is essential.
- Local resilience is urgent.
If we confuse those timelines, the grid will keep teaching the same lesson on the hottest days of the year.