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Entergy’s amended application to serve a controversial Google data center will save its Arkansas ratepayers at least $500 million more than the $1.6 billion previously agreed, CEO Drew Marsh told investors Monday during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
The New Orleans-based utility holding company saw earnings increase more than 20% over the year-ago period helped by warmer-than-average weather across its four-state U.S. territory in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s southern zones, he said. Total electricity sales rose 5% year over year.
Entergy made progress on two key regulatory priorities in Louisiana, which accounts for nearly half of the holding company’s retail sales.
State regulators in October approved Entergy Louisiana’s $1.2 billion, 500-kV Babel to Webre transmission project, Marsh said. And Louisiana Public Service Commission staff separately reached a settlement with the utility that Entergy said “resolves all outstanding issues” between the company, LPSC staff and one intervenor in a contested proceeding related to several gigawatts of generation and related infrastructure to serve Meta’s planned Hyperion data center campus.
The LPSC is set to vote on the matter next month, Entergy said.
By the numbers
43,392 GWh
Third-quarter electricity sales, up 5.3% year over year
$1.98
Third-quarter earnings per share, up from $1.53/sh in Q3 2025
$1.2B
Cost of 500-kV transmission transmission project approved by Louisiana regulators
$55B
Planned capital investment through 2030
Meanwhile, Entergy’s Mississippi utility asked state regulators last month for state clearance to issue bonds that would offset approximately $237.8 million of costs related to Winter Storm Fern, which Entergy said caused “severe damage” to its infrastructure.
And in Texas, Entergy said it has energized the Orange County Advanced Power Station, a 1,215-MW combined-cycle gas plant built to support load growth in the state’s southeastern corner.
A Google amendment and a stable large-load pipeline
Entergy filed the amended Google service contract with Arkansas regulators last month. If approved, Entergy would add 350 MW of battery energy storage at two sites and procure 440 MW of solar from Pattern Energy’s nearby Big Island Solar project, the company said in a required securities filing this week.
The Arkansas Public Service Commission is set to hear the matter in January, Entergy said.
The amended contract would expand power demand from Google’s West Memphis data center, but the exact amount and other key details are redacted, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on Oct 20.
On Monday, Marsh said Google would pay $600 million toward the cost of the battery systems and suggested the tech giant would avoid passing costs to other Entergy ratepayers.
“This agreement ensures that Google will cover its fair share, which includes the cost of the new investments as well as their share of system costs,” Marsh said.
Entergy Arkansas is one of five utility companies owned by Entergy, and earned about 48% of its sales from industrial customers in 2025. The parent company’s four-state territory has been a popular destination for large-scale data centers like Google’s Arkansas project and Meta’s even larger Louisiana campus.
Together, data center and traditional industrial customers account for a large share of Entergy’s expected future sales growth, much of which is not yet reflected in the company’s near-term capital plan, Marsh said.
“We have a strong pipeline of projects in varying stages that are not in our base plan,” he said. “Data center interest remains strong and in the range of 7 [GW] to 12 GW. Our traditional industrial segments continue with discussions for 3 [GW] to 5 GW.”
Robust capital spending plans
Those large-load pipeline figures are largely unchanged from recent quarters’ projections. But the company’s projected four-year capital spending has risen significantly over the past year, to about $55 billion as of Sept. 30.
Marsh said the Google contract allows Entergy to keep base rates flat for Arkansas customers. However, that’s not the case in Louisiana, where Meta “is helping [to] offset some [infrastructure] costs, but not necessarily to make it go back to flat like we were in Arkansas,” he said.
To serve the Meta data center, Entergy plans to spend about $12.9 billion to build seven combined-cycle gas-fired power plants with 5,278 MW of combined capacity, plus a $1.4 billion transmission line and 200 MW of battery storage. It has also asked Louisiana regulators to approve a corporate sustainability agreement that would see Meta — doing business as Evest LLC — cover the cost of 2,500 MW of new renewables and energy storage resources.
To support the new gas generation, Entergy inked firm transportation agreements with “large midstream and pipeline companies” for 1.325 billion cubic feet/day of natural gas, Marsh said.
“That’s enough for Entergy to supply fuel to 10 new combined cycles in Louisiana … and also helps build new pipeline capacity that benefits our industrial customers’ growth,” he said.
Source: www.utilitydive.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.
