Ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna get started.

Please take your seats.

Please take your seats.

Let me know when you're ready, Aaron.

Ready when you are council member.

All right, let's do roll call.

Councilmember Thomas present.

Councilmember Morel present.

Councilmember Moreno present.

Councilmember Harris present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

First up, we have the approval of the minutes from September 9th joint committee meeting.

I will move to adopt.

Second by Chairman Moreno.

All in favor say aye.

Four years, no nays.

It is adopted.

Next we have a presentation by Delta Utilities.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to provide an update on our progress transitioning from enter Gollowing Acquisition of the Natural Gas Assets here in New Orleans.

So with respect to our service, we've had a seamless transition.

We successfully transferred natural gas service from entergy beginning July 1 without any disruption to customers.

And our goal internally was to ensure continuity and reliability during that critical transition period.

And we believe we've been very successful.

In only five months, with if we compare where we were on a customer interaction basis to the toe, we have registered 58% of our customers.

We've achieved 100% retention of the skilled workforce that uh we inherited from InterG, uh preserving their institutional knowledge and operational technical expertise.

We've created 125 additional jobs here in New Orleans to support our multi-state operations uh in the balance of Louisiana and Mississippi, uh contributing to local economic growth and employment.

Um we've enhanced the customer access uh experience.

So we've opened not one but two customer care locations, the first one being on 3400 Canal Street.

Uh co-like co-located with Intergy, and the second one 3535 General DeGaulle on the West Bank at the Liberty Bank building.

And we're improving access on the West Bank for our customers.

We have about a hundred or so customers that visit us on average every day on the east bank and about uh 20 to 40 on the the west bank.

And we've established a dedicated natural gas uh service team that's accessible.

Uh 1833 Delta 99.

We've instituted a lot of uh technology and customer experience improvements, uh the most important of which is probably track my technician technology, which allows customers to monitor their service appointments in real time, and more importantly, provide real-time feedback to us as to how we're doing.

Um we've engaged with the community and partnering with them consistent with our mission.

Um we've actively engaged with the community by attending over 25 neighborhood association meetings and community events.

We've built strong partnerships throughout the community with existing civic groups and demonstrating our commitment to be responsive uh citizen uh utility provider within the city.

From a customer operations perspective, we look at call center metrics to access to assess our health.

With respect to that, customers reached out to us in the call center, and they're prompted to participate in a survey, and we've averaged 4.1 out of a five scale represents their satisfaction from a customer rating from July through November, and that has been trending upward.

We make an additional effort to minimize the wait time that our call center callers have.

Our service level in November has increased by over 25%.

20% rather since our launch two months ago.

We answer 90% of our calls within 20 seconds and have abandoned rate abandonment rates of less than two to five percent.

Our handle time on each of these calls continues to improve.

To date, our team has handled over 128,000 across Baton Rouge and New Orleans calls and have improved our handle time by over 18% since we launched service.

And more importantly, from a field operations perspective, we look at various metrics to assess our health and field operations.

Since we have initiated operations, we have initiated about 17,400 work orders in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and we've completed about 87% of those work orders.

And it's important to point that out because this leads to a safer and more reliable system.

And as respect to our appointments, we we schedule appointments to meet our customers to set up service.

We've met 86% of our appointments to date that are scheduled in a window.

Over 90% of the appointments have been met in November and December, meaning that if the customer had an 8 to 12 a.m.

window, we showed up on site as scheduled to meet them.

That's a very positive trend that we're continuing to meet as we go forward from the organization from the transition.

Good morning, Council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

Just want to talk a bit about utility scam awareness.

Obviously, customer security is our priority.

And utility scams can happen over the phone, they can happen online as well as in person.

So some of the information up here we also have on our website.

We've shared with customers in our locations, our care center locations.

We've also sent it out on our bill messaging, but we just want to remind customers to be aware.

And then if anything seems suspicious or raises concerns, to please reach out to Delta Utilities at our customer service number 18335-8299 to verify before taking any action.

One thing I'll point out that all Delta Utilities employees wear branded uniforms, they drive branded vehicles, they carry identification badges.

So if they're coming to your house for a service appointment, people should be aware of that, and those are things that they can recognize.

In terms of winter safety reminders, we we share this with customers across our territory a few weeks ago, but we work year-round to make sure that our systems and operations are prepared to keep customers safe and warm by routinely inspecting our pipelines and our equipment and our facilities, by upgrading our infrastructure, making sure that we have adequate natural gas supply, and then preparing and training crews for winter operation.

As I said, we sent out these winter safety reminders about meter and vent care, appliance and generator safety, carbon monoxide safety, and of course what to do if customers smell gas, which is to leave the area immediately and call 911.

We're going to be placing similar messaging in both our care centers on the east and west bank.

Also want to take the opportunity to remind customers that winter months are going to increase natural gas usage.

Many households are using two or three times more gas compared to months where they're not using heating, and that can lead to higher bills.

But there are a lot of things that customers can do to help manage these costs, including lowering their thermostat when they're out of the house, sealing their windows and doors to prevent any heat loss, and then of course scheduling regular maintenance for heating systems and gas appliances.

We want to make sure customers are aware of.

We're very much committed to investing in community partnerships.

We understand that strong partnerships with local organizations, schools, businesses, civic groups, helps to build trust but also keep the lines of communication open.

What you're seeing on the slide is not an exhaustive list of all of our partnerships, but I think it gives a good representation of some of the organizations that we have partnered with this year.

Looking forward, we are very excited we're partnering with United Way, and we're going to be launching a program called DU CARES to be able to provide financial assistance for customers who are facing economic hardship.

We're looking forward to launching that hopefully in the next 45 days.

That's all we have for today.

Thank you very much.

I think we have some comments.

Nope.

All right.

We allow my comments.

Oh no, okay.

Thank you for your presentation.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up we have item four, which is the Energy New Orleans Reliability presentation.

That's 4A, so come on up.

Click over.

Okay.

Okay.

Good morning, Chair, Council members and members of the public.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about an issue that affects us all.

Reliability.

Can you pull the microphone closer?

Thank you.

Is that better?

Yes.

Okay.

When the power goes out, it disrupts daily life and creates uncertainty.

We understand the seriousness of these impacts.

Reliability reliable service is fundamental to the stability of homes and businesses, and we take that responsibility seriously.

Let me be clear.

We are fully committed to doing the work this community deserves to strengthen reliability across our system.

I'm joined today by colleagues who are central to this effort.

Shelton Hudson, Vice President of Reliability, who will lead today's presentation.

Courtney Nicholson, regulatory counsel, and Van Calamari, Director of ENO Metro Reliability.

We hear the concerns and we recognize the expectations.

As work continues and progress is made, it is essential that people can see it, feel it, and benefit from it in their daily lives.

We value the council's partnership and oversight, and we appreciate the opportunity today to share our reliability plan and discuss the work already in motion.

Our shared goal is a system that is stronger, a system that is more resilient, a system that is better equipped to support the evolving needs of every neighborhood we serve.

With that, I'll turn it over to Shelton to walk us through the immediate steps underway and the longer-term plans to reinforce reliability well into the future.

Shelton.

Good morning.

Chair and Council members.

As Lee Roy mentioned, I am Shelton Hudson, Vice President of Reliability.

I am responsible for distribution, transmission, and substations for New Orleans.

I prepared a presentation regarding an overview of our electric system, our key reliability outcomes for 2025, and what steps will we will be taking in 2026 to improve reliability.

Our goal is simple.

Fewer outages, shorter outages, and a better experience for every customer we serve.

Energy New Orleans serves over 210,000 customers to keep power flowing to all these customers.

We rely on a large complex system of equipment that we maintain and monitor every day.

Just to give you a sense of that scale, there are more than 95,000 distribution polls across the city.

We own about 50% of these and have our assets on many of the other polls we don't own.

Every one of our polls goes through our regular inspection program.

We operate close to 1,800 miles of distribution line and about 35,000 transformers.

We also use tools to help us spot when a transformer might be starting to fail so we can fix it before it becomes a problem.

On the transmission side, we manage nearly 2200 structures, around 140 miles of transmission line, and 24 substations.

All of this equipment working together allows us to reliably serve homes, businesses, and essential institutions throughout New Orleans.

We take reliability seriously, and our goal is simple to provide dependable service to every one of our customers.

We still have work to do, but we are making progress.

This slide highlights some of the key reliability improvements we've seen in 2025.

Starting with the first column are substations.

In 2024, we saw an increase in substation related outages, and those events tended to impact a lot of our customers at once.

We recognized the issue, built an action plan, and executed it.

Because of that work, we've seen a 70% reduction in transmission related outages in the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the same period last year.

We also work hard to limit how many customers are affected when an outage does occur.

One of the ways we do that is through our self-healing network technology.

These systems automatically reroute power when these problems, when there's a problem, which helps keep customers on.

So far in 2025, self-healing networks have helped us avoid 18,000 customer interruptions and 1.7 million customer outage minutes.

And of course, vegetation is a major factor in reliability here in New Orleans.

We know how meaningful the city street canopy is, and we want to balance that with the need to keep customer lights on.

With that in mind, our reliability and customer service teams met with parks and parkways in October to line on trimming approaches and aesthetics.

Year to date, we've trimmed 484 miles of distribution feeders and conducted spot trimming on four more.

Can we stop on that slide?

I want to know what has been done differently regarding vegetation that's led to that dramatic drop.

If you want to go.

Thank you.

Any other questions on the slide?

All right.

Turning your attention to slide four, I want to walk you through our priorities, priorities for 2026 reliability program.

We've grouped them into four focused areas, and I'll start in the top left corner of the slide.

First, our distribution reliability plan.

The goal here is to be really proactive and really targeted.

We look closely at areas that have had three or more outages over the last two years, and we also look at the surrounding zones.

Basically, about a one mile, one square mile area.

If they had one outage in the last year, and using that approach, we're planning 16 major projects for 2026.

And that number may shift a bit as we watch what's happening on the system in real time.

The point is the plan is flexible so we can respond to what data is telling us.

Next, we're putting more attention on lightning related outages because we've seen those increase.

We're identifying spots where we can install more devices that allow us to sectionalize our feeders.

Those help limit the number of customers who get pulled into an outage when lightning strikes.

And by reviewing feeder performance year-round, not just during storm season, we can get ahead of issues before they balloon into bigger problems.

Now looking at the bottom left, we're expanding the use of grid technology and real-time monitoring.

This is all about finding issues early.

We recently launched a substation pallet that includes enhanced testing and inspections.

We're already seeing some real benefits, especially from the security monitoring and the thermal inspections.

And we'll continue to roll out more self-healing networks, which either prevent larger outages altogether or help us shorten the time customers are without power.

The other two sections on this slide and tied back to what I've covered earlier.

Those efforts are ongoing and they will continue in 2026.

In closing, I want to reaffirm something essential.

We hold ourselves accountable for delivering the level of reliability our customers expect and deserve.

This is our responsibility, and we do not take it lightly.

We also recognize that this work is not done in isolation.

We will continue to work closely with the council, your advisors, and stakeholders to ensure transparency, alignment, and shared progress.

Your oversight makes us better, and your expectations push us to deliver at a higher level.

Thank you for your partnership for the opportunity to demonstrate the work ahead and the progress we fully intend to deliver.

And with that, I'll turn it back over to LeWorld.

Well, Council members, we appreciate your attention to this uh very important matter and have you taken questions that you may have right now.

On slide six, we see some investments that are noted, and I'm wondering why those investments are occurring now, considering this council and previous councils have kind of referred to reliability issues for years.

Was there an impetus that led to that new investment?

I'm sorry, Councilman.

Slide six.

We don't have a slide six.

There you go.

So there's been additional investment in the reliability, obviously, over the last year.

What considering that this council and the previous council expressed concerns regarding reliability as a whole, what was the impetus to do this investment this that particular year?

Well, Councilman, I think there are probably a host of reasons, but the goal is to always uh be better, do better, continue investment.

Um, the work is always ongoing.

Um Shelton, Dan, I don't know if you want to dig into that a little bit more, but that's the general approach.

Okay.

Um I just wanted to add in, you know, when we looked at the closeout of 2024, we had a an uptick in terms of outages that were related to to the substation in our in our substations.

With that, we wanted to make sure that we had a reliability plan that allowed us to be flexible to be able to go after what's what may arise and go after what ails our customers.

When we talk about those substation outages, you know, and uh I I think you guys probably heard Napoleon substation reference a few times.

Well, when we had those substation outages, we impacted 10 to 12,000 customers every time there was an outage that was within that substation.

And so one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we were aggressive in 2025 is is changing out those arresters that were causing some outages based on in the substation space, and we've uh we've had a plan that we now have executed and look to have all those arrestors out of the system by the end of 2026, and then also all the oil-filled breakers that and this was in our previous presentation.

I think I I presented to the group that I um also made sure that we had a plan in place to have those breakers changed out uh by the end of 2027 as well.

The other questions on this item.

All right, with that, thank you.

Uh next up, as 4A, we have a resolution that ours a new review of asset management systems by the utility advisors, an updated report from quad technologies.

I believe Joe and the Ziel and represent on that.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, the resolutions uh an attempt to try to get at some of the issues that were being discussed at the table.

We we know that there have been some uh uh persistent outage issues over the last year, year and a half.

Um we've noticed that there have been some trends uh that have started to go in the wrong direction.

I mean, this started back in 2017 when we had a period of of uh fair weather outages and unexplained outages, and the council back at that time uh put in place some reporting requirements and some goals and things that uh the company was expect expected to uh achieve.

And that happened for a few years, but unfortunately, the past year, year and a half, there has been a decline.

There's also been um uh a persistent problem with equipment failures, which is something that we think um the council's been very concerned about because equipment failures seem to be independent of weather conditions, and if you don't have the sufficient uh asset maintenance and um uh and asset management plans in place uh to find those equipment problems in advance, you continue to have problems.

Uh the other thing is we noticed that there's also trends, certain areas of cities seem to get more of these fair weather outages than others.

So, this resolution is an attempt to try to regenerate uh the investigation that was started by the council back in 2017 to you know sit with ENO, work with ENO, get the updated information, figure out where there's still problems, and the reason for the proposed uh update of the QA study because in 2017 2018, when this was an issue for the council um national uh organization, quanta technologies was engaged by ENO to do an assessment of their system, which was a well done report.

The problem is that report said they really couldn't report on ENO's failure rate in comparison to other utilities because at the time ENO didn't maintain the information to allow that analysis.

So part of this resolution is to update that Qanta study, uh, see if those things have been changed as they were directed to be by the council previously, uh, and see if QA can come to a conclusion about uh ENO's distribution system with respect to asset management equipment failures and failure rates.

Uh so this directs the advisors to work with CURO and ENO to get all those things moving and in place and to report back to the council uh expeditiously.

Thank you.

We have two public comments, one germane online comment, and one non-germane online comment that I'll add to the record.

First up, we have Logan Burke for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, followed by Elizabeth Sojek.

Thank you, Council.

Logan Burke with the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

Um, first of all, we are encouraged to see the council take some action on this remarkably poor service.

Um Orleanians are not getting what we're paying for, and increasingly cannot pay for.

Um, Bank of America recently analyzed the intersection between reliability and affordability and found that Entergy New Orleans is among the very worst utilities in the company for delivering poor service in exchange for premium bills.

We are hopeful that this uh investigation will result in strengthened performance metrics and penalties and actually get us where we need to go.

In particular, we appreciate the direction to review entergy's capital operations and maintenance budgets.

It is well understood that ONM uh cuts are often an easy way for utilities to pad profit.

Um we do have a concern, however, about the resolution that it narrows participation in this investigation to only the council's advisors and CURO.

Um, the the council should ensure that interveners in this docket, especially those of it who's been in this docket since 2017 are allowed to participate and review discovery and filings, including those that may be filed under the council's protective order.

Keeping the lights on affects all of us, and interveners should not be kept in the dark.

In the meantime, as we have said here before, if entergy can't provide reliable service, customers who are struggling should not be subjected to disconnections, especially as the volatile cost of gas threatens to spike bills this winter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Elizabeth Sojuk Good morning.

I'm Elizabeth Sojak.

I live on Pun Steleon Street, and I'm here in part to represent uh climate reality project, Greater New Orleans chapter.

Good morning, Council people, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

And congratulations to Mayor Elect Marino.

Um I would like to first echo what Logan just said about a little more transparency and with the processes and allowing the interveners to have more information.

This is really critical in a democracy.

Um, especially from what we see at the federal level in terms of things going on that uh are not right, and we need to protect our democratic values and institutions, and part of that is having more transparency in these proceedings.

Um I would like to advocate that the city council vote to stop shutoffs, and the reason that power shutoffs and the reason that I'm bringing this up in relationship to entergy's reliability is because energy's reliability has been some of the worst.

Um according to Louisiana's own legislative auditor, ratepayers in New Orleans have had some of the highest bills in America combined with some of the least reliable service.

And I'm asking you, isn't it time that struggling New Orleans ratepayers are giving the same grace from our city council that entergy has been given over the few years, the last few years with all their shortfalls?

Thank you for your comment.

Appreciate you.

Uh we have one germane online comment, and one that I'll add to the record, though it is not germane.

Yeah.

The comment is from Pastor Gregory Manning.

He says, Dear council, entergy's reliability is a continuing problem for all the ratepayers of New Orleans.

This problem is compounded for those with limited resources by the fact that the city lacks a policy and a program to stop both electricity and gas disconnections during the coldest months.

It is tragic to consider that many of our fellow citizens will be disconnected and denied heat and light this winter, and it is within the council's power to prevent this.

Therefore, the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition stands with Energy Future New Orleans and respectfully and respectfully calls for the council to create a winter-long moratorium on all electric and gas disconnections.

Thank you for your anticipated action on behalf of those who so badly need it.

Pastor Gregory Manning, founder and chair Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition.

Thank you.

I said the non-germain comma will be added to the record.

I'll move to adopt the resolution.

Can I get a second?

Second by Councilmember Green.

Please vote your machines.

Aye.

All right.

Voice vote.

Aye.

All right, that is five years, no nays.

It is adopted.

Next on the agenda is item number five.

Do you want me to let so it's yep, it's been deferred to the 1216 meeting.

Uh next up we have item number six.

Uh this is just procedural schedule to determine whether cost related to Hern Camp or Hurricane Francine were prudently occurred.

Um typical and do we have any comments on this item?

We do not.

All right.

I will move for adoption of the item to consider established schedule spectrum energy New Orleans application certification of cost.

Please vote your machines.

Four years.

Councilmember.

There you go.

Five.

Five.

We do.

Okay.

Five years, no nays.

It's adopted.

Uh we have item seven, which is a resolution, Energy New Orleans 2025 financing authorization.

Aaron, do you want to comment on this real quick before we vote?

Uh councilmember, this is a routine filing that predates all of us on the dais, but we do it every two years to just ensure that enter D can incur debt within the parameters set forth in the resolution.

Okay.

Um, do we have any comment cards?

Hearing none, I will move to adopt.

I guess second.

Second by Councilmember Harris.

Please vote your machines.

All right.

Voice vote.

All in favor.

Aye, five yes, no nays.

It is adopted.

Next up are yours.

All right.

Item eight is the integrated resource plan, and the resolution accepts ENO's Energy New Orleans integrated resource plan filing as in compliance with the IRP rules.

Any public comment, Aaron?

All right, no.

Machine clears, I move adoption.

Seconded by President Morrell.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

All right, that's approved.

Next is a resolution on energy smart.

This is item number nine.

This resolution approves energy smart program for years 16 through 18, maintaining the reduced savings goal for kilowatt per hour savings approved for year 15.

It also continues the battery battery energy storage system as a as approved in year 15, but it does move the request to expand the distributed energy resources and also the virtual power plant docket.

And it requires entity New Orleans to submit a report detailing the program scope, customer participation, cost, and savings compared to other years.

Do I have public comment on this?

No public comment.

I've moved and it's been seconded by President Morrell.

All in favor.

Come on, Jesse.

Come on up and um I don't have your card, but just fill it out afterward.

While we were hoping to see the council adopt the higher savings target for energy smart programming for the next three years, we're pleased to see that no residential programs were cut.

We would urge the council to act on this uh vote in a more timely manner in the future rather than waiting until December to provide more certainty for program service providers.

Uh book thank you very much for uh providing this crucial service as Logan mentioned.

Uh fossil gas prices have risen sharply in the past few weeks.

Uh they've reached a three-year high recently.

Um so these services are more critical uh than they have been uh in recent years.

So thank you very much.

All right, thank you, Jesse.

I and I do have your card.

Next is let's see.

Did we vote on that, Aaron?

Okay, I'll make a motion.

Seconded by President Morrell.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right, next is item number 10.

This is the RCPS compliance plan.

As you all know, RCPS is a renewable clean portfolio standard.

We passed this back in 2021 with the previous council, which uh ultimately uh has Energy New Orleans reaching net zero emissions by uh 2050, and then um New Orleans power generation uh of ending emissions completely uh to and that would be in 2050.

Today's resolution approves entergy's proposal to purchase unbundled renewable energy certificates to ensure compliance with the renewable and clean portfolio standard for years 2026 through 2028, and the proposed level of alternative alternative compliance payment with respect to energy New Orleans proposed alternative methods methods of compliance, earning clean energy credits through large event electric electrification, sewage and waterboard electrification, community solar, and net metered solar.

The resolution does direct entergy New Orleans to make a supplemental filing with additional information to address the deficiencies identified by our advisors in the report, and that the council may better evaluate whether or not those alternative methods should also be permitted to count toward compliance for 2026 through 2028.

Do I have any comment cards on this?

All right.

I'll make a motion to adopt, seconded by council member Morell.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Next year.

Regulatory contracts.

Thank you.

Uh next up, we have our motions regarding our 2025 utility regulatory contracts.

The committee will consider motions appointing the following advisors for utility regulatory matters.

We have the legal advisors, which is Denton's US LP, Technical Advisors, Legends Consulting Group.

It's a one-year contract renewals for council's current utility advisors and administrator hearing officers.

Uh Jeffrey S.

Gullen, Calvin Johnson, and we're adding Maria Ozan from Ozan and Associates.

Um we take these in globo or do them individually.

All right, we'll take them in globo.

Do we have any public comment cards?

Any online?

All right, I'll move.

Can I get a second?

Second by Council Vice President Moreno.

Please vote your machines.

All in favor?

Aye.

Five years, no nays.

It is adopted.

Uh I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Council Vice President Moreno moves to adjourn.

Seconded by Councilman Green.

All in favor?

Aye.

Five years, no nays were adjourned.