After Hurricane Ida made landfall in New Orleans in 2021, residents in some parts of the city didn’t have power for 10 days. In other parts of Louisiana, the storm was so destructive that some never got their power back at all. Ida was the fifth storm to hit Louisiana in 18 months, having followed Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta, along with Winter Storm Uri.

These storms meant that in just a short period of time the entire southern part of the state had to grapple with how to keep people safe when the power goes out for long stretches, said Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE).

“Suddenly a lot more people were paying attention to the grid. Something had shifted. Resilience had been a buzzword for a long time, but people began to ask what does it mean in terms of policy? What does it really mean in terms of keeping people in their homes and making sure that communities have what they need?” Burke said.

Storms are one thing, but people in South Louisiana often wind up in the dark for other reasons. In a city where the local investor-owned utility owns and operates nearly all the power generation and infrastructure, the Alliance was able to obtain data that showed that one in five New Orleans households were disconnected from power at some point in a single year for inability to pay.

“One in five,” Burke says. “I don’t care how strong your poles and wires are. If that many community members are struggling to keep the lights on, you’ve got another challenge entirely.”

In a subtropical climate only growing hotter and more humid, staying cool is not a comfort, it is a medical necessity. Reliable power is key to protecting those who depend on refrigerated medication or oxygen machines.

Since 1985, AAE has been working to ensure affordable, equitable and environmentally responsible energy policy for the people of Louisiana. The only dedicated consumer advocate in Louisiana for utility customers, the Alliance works to ensure residents and businesses aren’t paying more than their fair share.

As a result of the Alliance’s work in Louisiana, consumers have saved more than $400 million in the last 10 years and over $4 billion since the organization began.

For more than a decade, the Alliance has been pushing the New Orleans City Council and the Public Service Commission to consider more holistic planning for energy resources, Burke said. Utilities call this integrated resource planning, which basically means mapping out what power generation, infrastructure and customer-side resources the utility will invest in and use to meet their customers’ needs.

“We have been urging the New Orleans City Council for quite some time to encourage, if not require, the utility to think more down to the neighborhood level about how to meet those needs, not just with what resources the utilities will own, but what resources communities can own together,” Burke said. “That could include community solar, batteries, or what Together New Orleans calls a neighborhood power plan, which would make sure that, whether it’s distributed at churches or restaurants or community centers, nobody is further than a 10-to-15-minute walk from a place to charge a phone or power a medical device if the grid goes down.”

The Council is now weighing how to require that kind of planning in the utility’s next cycle, which begins soon, Burke said.

“We’re really trying to figure out how to redefine integrated planning to take into account what communities are already doing,” Burke said.

With rules already in place that allow for community solar development, the city’s first community solar project is set to come online in December. The 55 megawatts in development is the total for what is currently allowed in New Orleans.

“Why this integrated resource planning is going to be so important is that there’s more demand for community solar than there is availability right now with that cap. So the goal is that through this integrated resource planning process, we’ll be able to expand what is possible for community solar in the city,” Burke said.

Community members have played a big role in making sure that their voices are being heard, Burke said.

“People are clamoring for something different, and that is in the end what helps bring down those barriers,” Burke said.

“Light is your right,” Burke said. “We have nothing near the resilience that a city like New Orleans needs to have in a changing climate, so our hope is that we can not only make sure that the system is more prepared, but also ensure that we’re addressing everyday energy needs for people to stay safe and healthy in their homes.”