In 2026, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, will begin a South Load Pocket Risk Assessment focused on Louisiana. While the study may sound technical, it is relevant to the 10,000 New Orleanians who lost power for 3.5 hours during the May 25th “loadshed event” – the power outage that hit the city last year.
The risk assessment will help Louisiana address key questions around the loadshed event: why it happened, how to prevent future outages, and who is responsible for grid reliability in Louisiana.
MISO manages the flow of electricity across 15 states, including Louisiana. Its job is to balance the supply and demand of electricity in real time, help manage congestion on transmission lines, and prevent large-scale outages. In simple terms, MISO allows utilities like Entergy New Orleans to buy and sell power across state lines so that electricity can be delivered to where it is needed most.
This regional coordination matters in Louisiana, which imports about 14% of its electricity from neighboring states. Without grid access, utilities would need to build and maintain more local power generators, which would raise costs for customers.
It may help to compare the way the power grid works to a ride-sharing app, like Uber. During peak times, when supply is limited and demand surges, prices rise quickly. An interconnected regional grid helps avoid those spikes by increasing access to supply from other states. That improves reliability and stabilizes costs.
The May 25th outage was linked to what we call “load pockets” – areas where electricity demand is high but transmission of outside energy into the area is constrained. For New Orleans in May, those constraints meant that even though power was available on the grid elsewhere, it could not be delivered fast enough to the city, where it was needed most.
If demand exceeds supply, it can cause cascading failures of power plants and other equipment, leading to a more serious grid failure. To protect the broader grid, MISO ordered a reduction in electricity demand in New Orleans. This is known as a loadshed event.
Load pockets in Louisiana are not new. They are the result of an under-developed electric grid, and they existed long before Entergy New Orleans and other Louisiana utilities joined MISO in 2013. Several years before that, in 2006, Entergy had identified the need for transmission upgrades to address its clear constraints.
That is why the Load Pocket Risk Assessment is so important. Once it begins later this year, the study will evaluate remaining transmission limitations and the increased risks that come with rising demand and extreme weather. After analysts identify problems, they will move to proposing solutions to improve reliability across southern Louisiana.
A well-planned regional grid protects against load-shed events and also delivers vital economic benefits. Modern transmission systems reduce congestion costs, support industrial growth, and attract investment by providing reliable and affordable power.
Delays in that work have the opposite effect. Research consistently shows that delaying transmission development increases long-term costs for consumers and limits economic opportunity.
This work also comes at a critical moment: Louisiana’s economy and public safety are increasingly dependent on reliable electricity, from hospitals and ports to data centers and emergency response. Grid Strategies predicts that electricity use will grow 5.7% annually over the next five years, driven by data centers, an increase in manufacturing, and electrification of industrial processes and manufacturing.
Extreme temperatures and stronger storms are also placing greater strain on our aging electric grid.
We also need coordinated planning to prepare for the addition of new renewable energy resources – including wind and solar – that are coming to Louisiana and are now the lowest-cost technology for bringing new electricity to the grid in the next five years. Planning for these realities requires tangible, long-term coordination and transparency, not short-term reactions after outages occur.
Some policymakers have suggested that Louisiana should leave MISO following the May load shed event. That’s not the solution.
Without MISO, Louisiana would lose crucial ties to a system designed to improve affordability and manage risk across a broader region. More importantly, leaving now would halt valuable progress just as MISO begins its study aimed directly at addressing South Louisiana’s grid challenges.
The upcoming Risk Assessment will give Louisiana a roadmap to strengthen its grid and prevent future outages. By using data-driven analysis to identify problems and explore solutions, the state can ensure that residents and businesses have reliable, affordable electricity for decades to come.
Smith, the Louisiana Program Manager of the Southwestern Wind Coalition, leads efforts to advance wind energy and grid resilience in Louisiana as a strategy for powering economic development across the state.
