Louisiana’s electric utility company wants a fast-tracked approval of three new gas-fired power plants to provide 2.3 gigawatts of power for a Meta data center. The proposed plants would add enough electricity to the grid to power New Orleans twice, and consumer advocates are raising the alarm that a rushed process could leave consumers paying higher bills.
In December 2024, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced a $10 billion data center in Richland Parish. To ensure the grid has enough power once the data center comes online, Entergy Louisiana plans to construct two new combined-cycle gas turbine power plants in Richland Parish and a third between New Orleans and Baton Rouge in St. Charles Parish.
The decision to approve the gas plants and transmission lines to connect new facilities to the grid rests with Louisiana’s Public Service Commission (PSC). Nationwide, utility companies are lining up to build new gas power plants, often citing the rise of artificial intelligence data centers as a primary driver of new electricity demand. In Louisiana, Entergy’s plan faced legal challenges in an administrative court.
The gas plants are on the PSC’s agenda for its meeting on Aug. 20. The commission may vote to approve Entergy’s plan even though an administrative law judge has not yet issued a recommendation after hearing arguments in July.
Why were Entergy’s gas plants challenged in court?
The Union of Concerned Scientists and the Alliance for Affordable Energy launched a challenge to Entergy’s plan. The groups argue Entergy rushed the process without adequate analysis of potential alternatives, overall costs and risks to Louisiana ratepayers.
“[Entergy] haven’t adequately studied the reliability implications and they certainly haven’t been transparent enough about the cost to rate payers,” said Paul Arbaje, an energy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, in an interview with Straight Arrow News.
Entergy circumvented the conventional request for proposal process, during which alternatives to new gas power plants could have been considered. Entergy’s contract with a Meta subsidiary, Laidley LLC, lasts for 15 years, but the lifespan of a gas plant is typically twice as long, which Arbaje said creates a problem in the long term.
“Any costs that Meta doesn’t pay will go to the ratepayers,” Arbaje said, which includes homes and businesses across Louisiana.
Because Meta is operating through a subsidiary, Laidley, there’s even more risk that the costs could fall on existing residents and business owners, Susan Miller, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, told SAN.
“The customer should pay for anything that is being built or created just for the customer,” Miller said. But she argues there aren’t adequate guardrails in the contract that prevent Meta from pulling out even before the 15 years are up.
An administrative law judge reviewed written testimony and oversaw cross-examinations in July. The judge would then issue a non-binding recommendation to commissioners at the PSC. That recommendation was expected in the coming months, but Entergy filed an application to receive approval prior to any recommendation by the judge.
What is Entergy saying about the gas plants?
In its application to the PSC, Entergy states that the $10 billion investment from Meta will “generate financial resources and jobs for a region of Louisiana which has historically struggled with economic development and high levels of poverty.”
Entergy said its proposal intends to balance quickly getting new resources online to power Meta’s data center while ensuring that ”existing customers are not unduly burdened with costs.”
Most of the original parties to the court case — not including the Union of Concerned Scientists or the Alliance for Affordable Energy — reached a settlement with Entergy. Therefore, the company argued that the commission should not “cause needless delay” by waiting for the judge’s recommendation.
On Aug. 20, the PSC could take several courses of action, including granting the approval or postponing the decision for a future monthly meeting.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Alex Delia
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://straightarrownews.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
