A New Orleans City Council committee passed a resolution this week to expand the Neighborhood Power Plan, the city's effort to put battery storage in homes and businesses so neighborhoods can keep the lights on when the grid buckles under storms or heat. The vote pushes forward a program that has already drawn unanimous council backing once before, and now moves toward a new phase focused on getting Entergy to spell out exactly how it will roll the plan out.
What the Committee Approved
The resolution passed this week directs Entergy to demonstrate how distributed energy resources — the batteries and solar systems the program funds — will provide value to both customers and the electric grid. According to WGNO, the council has advised Entergy to have a project plan ready by Oct. 31, with a proposed start date no later than the first quarter of 2027 for this next stage of rollout. The program is designed to employ local workers and local companies to build the projects, and it prioritizes low- to middle-income customers in how funding gets distributed.
The council first gave the Neighborhood Power Plan its initial green light with a unanimous vote on Dec. 18, 2025, approving what was described at the time as a $30 million proposal, according to Together New Orleans. That plan broke down to $28 million in upfront incentives for installing solar-and-battery systems and $2 million for program administration and implementation. Forty percent of residential incentives were reserved for low- and moderate-income households, a threshold echoed in this week's action prioritizing those same customers.
Council Members and Advocates Weigh In
Councilmember Matthew Willard said the program places storage capacity on homes and businesses to help maintain power during storms, framing it as a direct response to the city's aging and vulnerable power grid. New Orleans has reported 24,000 outages over the last six months, per Aimee McCarron, underscoring the urgency behind pushing Entergy toward a firmer timeline.
Advocacy group GRID Alternatives supported the resolution and says it's committed to creating local jobs for residents as installations move forward. Jesse George said utility access and access to vital life-giving services should be a human right, a line that captures the broader stakes advocates see in getting batteries into vulnerable homes before the next major storm.
How Big Is the Program, Really?
Exactly how many homes the program will reach depends on which account you read. The city's current target, per NOLA.com, is to provide batteries to about 800 homes and 220 businesses or other institutions. Earlier program materials from Together New Orleans described a larger scope — backup batteries tied to solar panels at about 1,500 homes and 150 to 250 community institutions across the city. The reason for the discrepancy between the two figures has not been established.
Whatever the final count, the mechanics are the same: battery storage systems provide extra power when the grid needs it, and program participants may receive additional revenue as more batteries are brought online and aggregated into what officials describe as a virtual power plant. Participants are also set to receive at least $75 on their bill through an ongoing Entergy program. A next-level pilot program will seek ways to expand the opportunity to more residents over the next three years.
Funding and the Bigger Picture
The plan is funded with Entergy settlement dollars and is not expected to increase utility rates, according to the same Together New Orleans report cited earlier. Entergy New Orleans, the City Council, program advisers and a third-party administrator were tasked with developing the implementation plan after the December vote, with installations originally expected to begin rolling out across neighborhoods sometime in 2026.
New Orleans currently has about 15 community lighthouses and 120 homes tied into the local microgrid, the nola.com report notes — a small existing footprint the Neighborhood Power Plan is meant to multiply significantly. Officials and advocates have described the program's ambitions in sweeping terms: Together New Orleans has said it aims to create the largest virtual power plant in the Deep South, while nola.com has characterized it as potentially the nation's largest virtual power plant on a per-capita basis.
The stakes go beyond bragging rights. During a power outage, homes get dangerously hot, communication is disrupted, food goes bad, and medication can't be refrigerated — the public-health rationale nola.com cited in explaining why the city is racing to get batteries into homes before the next grid emergency. Similar aggregation efforts exist elsewhere: utilities in London, Australia and Germany have combined residential and commercial sites into limited utility-scale systems, according to Clark Hill, though New Orleans' effort is being framed as unusually ambitious for its size.
For now, the ball is in Entergy's court. With the Oct. 31 deadline for a project plan looming and a first-quarter 2027 start date on the table, the coming weeks should clarify how many homes actually get batteries — and how soon New Orleans neighborhoods can lean on their own power during the next storm.
