Inside the community push for a VPP in New Orleans
Mar 3, 2026
How a “ragtag” group of nonprofits turned a utility settlement into an ambitious, community-led virtual power plant.
In the fall of 2024, it became clear to Nathalie Jordi that New Orleans needed a virtual power plant program.
Jordi led community solar efforts for the nonprofit Together New Orleans, which had been working to create resiliency hubs in New Orleans since 2021, installing solar panels and batteries at churches and community centers across the city. And when Hurricane Francine made landfall in mid-September, leaving nearly 50,000 residents without electricity, those first resiliency hubs, known as “community lighthouses,” had successfully sheltered and provided backup power to hundreds of people.
At around the same time, the city of New Orleans was deciding what to do with $30 million it had recently received as part of a larger $250 million settlement that Entergy New Orleans had paid over the mismanagement of one of its nuclear power plants, among other issues.
“The city council asked Together New Orleans to come and give a report on how the Community Lighthouse project had performed during the hurricane,” Jordi told Latitude Media. “And we realized there was an opportunity to ask for an expansion… because we had just outperformed expectation.”
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Trenton Allen
As CEO, Trenton navigates the strategic direction of SCA while continuing to provide clients with subject-matter expertise on the ins and outs of executing sustainable infrastructure projects.
Bianca Giacobone
Bianca Giacobone is a contributing reporter at Latitude Media. She is a freelance business reporter and fact-checker covering the clean energy transition.
About the source
Bianca Giacobone
Bianca Giacobone is a contributing reporter at Latitude Media. She is a freelance business reporter and fact-checker covering the clean energy transition.
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