Occasionally, we can experience a blackout, or what experts call a “load-shed event,” – usually when we have scorching summer temperatures on a weekday, when air conditioners are running overtime, factories are humming, and businesses are open.

None of these were the case when New Orleans had a blackout on Sunday, May 25. 

Behind the factors that did not cause the blackout in May is the root issue: Entergy continues to block long-range transmission planning, a necessary part of electric reliability. 

Instead, Entergy has a history of using its transmission system to prevent competition and maximize profits from its fleet of gas plants. That strategy prioritizes Entergy’s bottom line but sacrifices reliability for its customers, as we saw on May 25.

The unreliability will continue if regulators will not step up.

Some regulators want to blame the Mid-Continent Independent System Operator (MISO) for the May outage. MISO is the operator of the electric grid for the states that Entergy supplies  –Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas – and a dozen other states stretching all the way up to the Canadian border. On May 25, MISO had to make the call to shed load to prevent a more catastrophic event, such as cascading power failures that leave more people without electricity for longer times. 

MISO is also the coordinator of long-range transmission planning (LRTP) for the electric transmission grid. Like other nonprofit regional grid operators, MISO coordinates the flow of electricity across high-voltage, long-distance power lines within its region. Think of it as traffic on the road. Because of bad weather or roadwork, cars in one place can jam up. The flow of electricity can be similarly congested in one region due to heavy demands. Managing flow from a regional level helps to prevent outages and emergencies. 

Entergy joined MISO in December of 2013 after a unanimous vote by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). I was one of the five FERC commissioners who voted for approval.  

It is important to know the context of Entergy joining MISO. At the time, Entergy had been under investigation for nearly five years by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for anti-competitive practices.  The DOJ determined that Entergy had been operating its transmission system so that  owners of low-cost gas power plants couldn’t access Entergy’s service territory. As a result, Entergy consumers were paying higher prices.

Because of the DOJ’s extensive investigation, Entergy agreed to sell its transmission assets and join a Regional Transmission Organization, also known as an Independent System Operator (RTO/ISO). 

When pushed by the DOJ, Entergy had other options, but it joined MISO. MISO has two parts, MISO South (most of Louisiana with parts of Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas) and MISO Central-North (parts of Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, and Manitoba, Canada).

The two parts are linked by a narrow connection that looks like the Panama Canal as it runs through southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas. That creates an extremely limited North/South interconnection that’s often referred to as a bottleneck, because it only allows an extremely limited ability of power to flow between MISO North and MISO South. 

Entergy never sold its transmission assets to become part of the regional MISO electricity flow.  And the DOJ never followed through to enforce the transaction. A dozen years later, not one MISO Long Range Transmission Plan (LRTP) line has been built in Entergy’s service territory to bring power in when needed or send it elsewhere. In fact, not one long-range line has even been planned.  

For all practical purposes, nothing has been done to address Entergy’s anti-competitive practices, as determined by DOJ. 

During the time since Entergy joined MISO, the first wave of LRTP projects in MISO North has been entirely completed. The next two phases of LRTP in MISO North have been planned and are in various stages of approval by state commissions and the next phase of LRTP plans in MISO North are set to launch next year. 

Even for those who plan optimistically, it takes 10 years to plan, approve and build an LRTP line. 

While the New Orleans City Council and the Louisiana Public Service Commission were looking for answers and solutions at the recent public hearing on the blackout, MISO’s best response was they would start planning LRTP for MISO South in 2026. No one mentioned that that means the earliest an LRTP transmission line with a positive cost-benefit ratio for consumers would be in place is likely 2036, nearly a quarter of a century since Entergy joined MISO.

Any transmission line planned through MISO’s LRTP process must have a positive cost-to-benefit ratio to ensure that consumers benefit from the investment. Entergy will tell you they have invested billions in transmission. But none of those projects have gone through MISO’s LRTP process, to ensure there is broad regional benefit and there is a positive cost-benefit ratio for consumers. In fact, MISO recently estimated Entergy’s $3.3 billion transmission investment in 2023 had a .01 net benefit. 

The two LRTP projects now in the approval process for MISO North average well over a 2-to-1 net benefit for consumers and those lines were planned across the region for everyone’s benefit through the MISO stakeholder process.  

Entergy’s lines were planned by and for who? You guessed it, Entergy.

Throughout Entergy’s membership in MISO, I have witnessed and heard of numerous efforts by Entergy and its staff or consultants to the Public Service Commissioners and NOLA City Council to stall, block, interfere – or throw up barriers of any type, all to stop efforts to conduct LRTP in MISO South. 

You can blame MISO but it won’t do much good.  MISO and all RTO/ISOs are a creation of FERC intended to open our electric grid for competition, plan efficiently for the future, and enhance reliability. Where RTOs have been embraced, they have worked and worked well. 

But RTO/ISO membership is voluntary. MISO is essentially toothless to demand full participation in the LRTP process.

I’m not even suggesting you blame Entergy for the blackout and a dozen-plus years of blocking attempts to address the cause. 

Entergy is just doing what they have always done, maximize profits for shareholders. If they can block competition and corner the market for their gas generators by designing the transmission system that benefits them first, they will do it – and they are good at it.

The state public service commissions and New Orleans City Council, who regulate Entergy, must require Entergy to fully participate in MISO’s LRTP process. This is the key to planning and building a transmission system that will bring greater reliability for New Orleans and all of Entergy’s service territory, along with more competitively priced electricity and more diverse electric generation.  

Entergy must be held accountable for working with MISO to plan for the transmission needs of tomorrow, today. 

You know what they say about when is the best time to plant a tree – it’s today. Each day you wait is another day without shade.  The same goes with long range transmission planning. Each day you put it off you are paying higher prices and risking blackouts. 

John Norris served as a Commissioner on the Federal Regulatory Commission and as Chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board (PSC). If he knew what he knows today in 2012 when he voted for Entergy to join MISO, he would have voted no. He would love to see a better transmission connection between MISO South and North so that Louisiana could build and provide low-cost solar power throughout the MISO region.