Entergy Corp.'s ability to provide all the resources needed to serve a "substantial" large-load customer helped lure Meta Platforms Inc. to northeast Louisiana, according to the New Orleans-headquartered utility's chief executive.
Meta and Louisiana Economic Development on Dec. 4 announced that the hyperscaler will build its much-anticipated $10 billion AI-driven datacenter in Richland Parish, Louisiana.
Meta said the 4-million-square-foot datacenter will be its largest in the world, with construction expected to be complete in 2030.
"I think they'll tell you that we probably weren't the first place that they thought they were going to do this," Entergy Chair and CEO Drew Marsh said in a Dec. 4 interview. "But it turns out that we have some real advantages in this space, not just from dealing with large customers, but by the fact that we are a one-stop shop for everything that they need."
Entergy can provide generation, transmission and retail access. The company also has experience bringing a variety of stakeholders to the table, including lawmakers and regulators, the CEO added.
"One of the big things for these hyperscalers is speed to market," Marsh said. "Everybody thinks that a rate-regulated environment is going to be inherently slow because of the approval process. But it turns out, if you can have the integrated conversation, that can help things move along incredibly fast. That is an advantage for us with these hyperscalers."
Delivering the power
Entergy subsidiary Entergy Louisiana LLC filed an application with state regulators for three natural gas-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 2,260 MW ahead of the announcement. Two of the 754-MW combined-cycle combustion-turbine gas plants will be located adjacent to the datacenter site, according to an application filed Oct. 30 with the Louisiana Public Service Commission. (Docket No. U-37425)
The planned gas plants, which represent $3.2 billion of investment, will be hydrogen-ready and enabled for future carbon capture and storage. They are expected to come online between 2028 and 2029, subject to regulatory approval.
Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell previously confirmed to S&P Global Commodity Insights that the plants were part of an electric service agreement Entergy Louisiana entered into with Meta to power a large datacenter.
"To show you the enormity of just how big this [datacenter] is going to be, they think it will use 30% of the load of Entergy in Louisiana," Campbell said in a Nov. 21 interview.
Meta has agreed to match its electricity usage with "100% clean and renewable energy" and will also work with Entergy to add at least 1,500 MW of solar and storage to the grid.
In addition, Meta will contribute up to $1 million annually to Entergy's low-income ratepayer support program, which will be matched by Entergy Louisiana.
Entergy Louisiana, for its part, has filed for approval to build about 100 miles of 500-kV transmission lines and eight 230-kV transmission lines.
Marsh declined to say if Meta would be Entergy's largest customer.
"We haven't announced the size, but it is substantial," Marsh said.
Marsh, however, pointed out that Entergy Mississippi LLC announced plans at the beginning of the year to power a similar, $10 billion investment by Amazon Web Services Inc. in Madison County, Mississippi.
"Those datacenters are bigger than our traditional customers. There is no mystery to that," Marsh said. "You're talking about a gigawatt-size customer or larger, and that customer runs at a 90% utilization rate. That is a lot of megawatt hours. It just is."
Entergy is producing about 120 TWh of retail load and a 1-GW customer that runs 8,000 hours a year would consume 8 TWh of electricity, Marsh noted.
Cleaner solutions?
Marsh acknowledged that customers such as Meta are looking for cleaner energy to power their datacenters.
Meta in a Dec. 3 announcement said it is seeking up to 4 GW of new nuclear capacity for its artificial intelligence operations.
Entergy is exploring adding new nuclear capacity, but must do it in a "financially responsible way ... because there is a lot of first-of-a-kind risk in that space," Marsh said.
There is interest in nuclear projects in the service territories of Entergy Mississippi, Entergy Arkansas LLC, Entergy Texas Inc. and Entergy Louisiana. "But the size of the potential plant could be bigger than the entire balance sheet of the existing company, which just gives you a sense for the scale of risk that might be there for that operating company," Marsh said. "So, we're not going to embark on anything that creates an existential risk on day one just by announcing it. So, we'll be very mindful of that."