NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— The extreme heat is also affecting Entergy’s plans to do upgrade work around the city. They canceled planned outages this week. Entergy says it is dangerous for work crews and residents to be without air conditioning right now.
With hurricane season being here, Entergy planned on doing inspections and maintenance and reliability work throughout areas of Uptown and Mid-City.
Blair Price lives Uptown. She was absolutely dreading being without any air conditioning in this heat.
“I mean it is hotter than ever right now. We are not used to this,” Price said.
Blair’s one of about 1,100 customers that was going to be without cool air while Entergy did upgrade work in her neighborhood this week.
“So many people are working from home. I’m working from home. I wouldn’t have been able to take it,” she said.
Because of the extreme heat—Entergy decided to give their customers relief and also keep their work crews safe from the dangerously high temperatures.
“We thought it was best to cancel and reschedule for a different time frame,” John Hawkins Jr., Vice-President of Reliability for Entergy Louisiana said.
Although the work was postponed, Entergy still needs to get it done.
“This is important and critical work. We are doing some things to adjust and make sure it is less impactful to customers. We will be starting the work early in the day, we’re planning to have our work done by noon before we hit those peak high temperatures,” Hawkins said.
As for Entergy customers like Blair—she’s feeling relieved.
“Very, very happy. I’ve got air, but I wish I had an inflatable pool with some ice,” she said.
Entergy expects to resume the upgrade work sometime next week.