Utility reaches settlement with PSC to recommend approval of data center
Louisiana-based utility Entergy is building a new $1.2 billion 100-mile 500kV transmission project close to Meta’s planned 2GW data center campus in Richland Parish, northeast Louisiana.
According to the 2025 MISO Transmission Plan, the project is expected to come online by December 2026, much faster than anticipated.
News on the data center - known as Hyperion - first broke back in December, with Meta announcing its intention to construct the mega campus on 2,250 acres between the municipalities of Rayville and Delhi, about 30 miles east of Monroe. Renderings of the campus suggest up to nine buildings are being planned, with construction expected to be completed in phases through 2030.
As part of the initial announcement, Entergy said it would fund new power generation and transmission infrastructure to support the data center, with the recently announced project likely a part of this.
This will include the construction of three combined-cycle combustion turbines with a combined capacity of 2,260MW, two substations, six customer-owned substations, and eight new 230kV transmission lines.
In November, it was reported that Entergy had proposed the construction of a 1.5GW natural gas plant in northeast Louisiana to power the data center.
Pending regulatory approval, the new power generation assets are likely to come online between 2028 and 2029 and will serve the data center through the grid.
In its latest earnings report, the utility reported that it reached a stipulated settlement with the Louisiana Public Service Commission staff and a number of parties recommending approval of its request to invest in assets to support adding the data center to its system.
The data center had been opposed by two environmental groups, who filed motions to block a utility connection between the data center and Entergy earlier this year. In the motion, the groups contended that Entergy did not follow the correct procedure when proposing the new gas-fired plants, which could result in significant costs for ratepayers.
Meta has offered to offset most of the costs for Entergy's customers, with the company set to pay the full annual revenue for the plants for 15 years. However, the groups contended that Entergy did not offer the most cost-effective option for ratepayers.
In the earnings call, CEO of Entergy Drew March went on to say that the utility had a “robust” customer pipeline, with data center opportunities in the 5GW to 10GW range. As a result, the utility raised its four-year capital expenditure outlook by $3bn to support industrial and data center load growth.
