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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Officials with Entergy New Orleans announced a new plan to strengthen the power grid, called Operation Gridiron.

According to Entergy CEO Deanna Rodriguez, the more than $1 billion plan will upgrade Entergy’s infrastructure and is a long-term investment in New Orleans.

She said the decision comes after so many storms have hit New Orleans in recent years.

“These more frequent and more powerful storms are impacting our community. there’s an urgent need to invest now so that we are stronger and more ready tomorrow,” she said.

If the plan is approved, officials said Entergy will invest $1 billion in the city’s grid for more than 10 years, cut outage times by more than half, upgrade thousands of poles to withstand 150 mph winds, harden 650 miles of power lines and perform “responsible work with full transparency, empowering the community to hold us accountable for the work being done.”

The Entergy plan is contingent on approval from the New Orleans City Council.

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