S&WB’s new power complex failed once before Arthur. It wasn’t disclosed by officials.

By Ben Myers

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

June 23, 2026

The Sewerage & Water Board power equipment that tripped offline last week when the remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur slammed into New Orleans had failed once before on a day with little to no rainfall.

The May 20 failure at the S&WB’s newly built power complex occurred just before a five-day stretch in which New Orleans saw as much as seven inches of rain. The utility didn’t publicly disclose the issue. Steve Nelson, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for infrastructure, confirmed the previous failure on Tuesday morning.

The two failures of a newly minted, $300 million power complex have raised concerns about the resiliency of the power system and how the S&WB will keep drainage pumps running during severe weather in the near future.

It’s not clear what actions the S&WB took after the May 20 failure. Nelson said he learned about the earlier failure in a discussion with S&WB officials sometime during the week of June 8.

“It’s the responsibility of the board to come forward with their findings and action items,” Nelson said.

“More communication is always good,” he said, adding that being able “to ensure that operationally we don’t have a risk going into a heavy weather event is obviously important.”

The S&WB did not respond to questions on Tuesday about the May 20 failure, and why it wasn’t disclosed. The S&WB acknowledged the previous failure in statement to WVUE-TV. 

The S&WB said on Monday that a consultant will analyze if a dedicated Entergy substation, the centerpiece of the new power complex, is compatible with its equipment. It’s not clear when the analysis will be complete. 

The S&WB power equipment tripped offline on June 18 when an Entergy voltage fluctuation exceeded the equipment settings, according to the S&WB. Both the S&WB and Entergy have declined to answer more detailed questions about the equipment settings and voltage fluctuations. Officials with both utilities are expected to appear before a City Council committee on June 30.  

“We have to get those answers,” Nelson said. “Entergy, what are your standards? Sewerage & Water Board, is your equipment set to handle those standards? And if not, what are you going to do to fix that?”

Less is known about the May 20 failure, which officials did not mention it during public discussions about the power complex after it happened. In the statement to WVUE-TV, the S&WB said the earlier failure also involved a voltage drop. 

Rebecca Mowbray, chief executive officer of the Bureau of Governmental Research, called the revelation of an earlier, undisclosed power failure “terrible news.”

“The equipment problems are serious enough on their own, but it’s now hurricane season, and people can’t trust a system they’re not being told the truth about,” Mowbray said in a social media post. “So the Sewerage & Water Board and Entergy have two jobs right now: figure out what’s wrong and fix it, and be straight with the public while they do it.” 

The S&WB finished work on the power complex this year. It was widely considered one of the most important New Orleans infrastructure projects in recent memory, and officials celebrated what they thought was the end of repeated power losses to the city’s drainage pumps that have contributed to several floods over the years.

The power complex is built around a new Entergy substation, which channels modern power through special equipment — known as frequency changers — that converts it for use on the century-old pumps. 

At a June 11 meeting of the Infrastructure Advisory Board, General Superintendent Kaitlin Tymrak said the frequency changers “are in service, commissioned, (we’re) using them as we need to.”

The day before Arthur’s remnants hit the New Orleans area, Executive Director Randy Hayman said at an S&WB board meeting that plenty of power was available to run the drainage system. 

Soon after the Thursday morning storms, the S&WB reported that the frequency changers had tripped offline for nearly an hour. That cut power to most of the drainage pumps at seven major pump stations, which drain much of the city. 

The consequences of the failure were minimal, since most of the city received less than 3 inches of rain. Minor flooding in Lakeview quickly receded once the pumps turned back on.

Over the weekend, the S&WB said the settings on the frequency changers force the equipment to shut down when voltage drops, and referred questions to Entergy “regarding the power quality standards that they typically maintain.” Entergy said the S&WB had improperly configured the settings on the frequency changers.

The utilities have said they will work together on a fix once the consultant analysis is finished. 

The substation, frequency changers and other components of the power complex are meant to replace unreliable in-house turbines that produce the 25-hz power many of the drainage pumps require. The S&WB has not said how it will run the drainage pumps if the frequency changers aren’t compatible with the substation.  

The S&WB has always planned to use backup sources if a transmission failure knocks out the substation. These include two new 60-hz turbines that can hook up to the frequency changers, along with one of the old 25-hz turbines. 

As of now, however, only one of the new 60-hz turbines is available, and the 25-hz turbine is out for repairs. That leaves the S&WB without enough power to run the entire drainage system at once if the substation isn’t available. 

The commissioning of the second 60-hz turbine, known as T-7, has been delayed for months. 

In a May 1 report to the City Council, Hayman said “the installation and commissioning of Turbine 7 has been delayed due to contractor issues,” without providing additional details. He said it would be ready in time for this year’s hurricane season, which began on June 1. 

The S&WB has not responded to multiple inquiries about T-7 this week.

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