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DATE
Monday, Nov. 2, 2026
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- Chair and Chief Executive Officer – Andrew S. Marsh
- Chief Financial Officer – Kimberly A. Fontan
- Vice President of Investor Relations – Liz Hunter
TAKEAWAYS
- Adjusted EPS — $1.98 per share, compared to $1.53 per share in the prior-year period.
- 2026 Guidance — narrowed to a range of $4.35 per share to $4.45 per share, representing an increase to the lower end of the previous range.
- Capital Investment Plan — increased by $1.5 billion for the 2026 to 2030 outlook, reflecting $600 million for an Arkansas Google expansion and updates from the annual planning cycle.
- Retail Sales — grew 7.4% GWh sold, driven by 12.6% growth in the residential sector and 4.9% in the industrial sector.
- Data Center Pipeline — identified at 7 gigawatts to 12 gigawatts of potential interest, with projects capable of converting into signed agreements within 24 months.
- Industrial Load Pipeline — maintained at 3 gigawatts to 5 gigawatts of potential interest across traditional industrial segments.
- Peak Demand — reached a record 24,000 megawatts in August, a 2% increase over the previous system peak.
- Entergy Mississippi Peak — rose 11% at peak demand, primarily due to data center ramping.
- Generation Capacity — completed the 1.2 gigawatt Orange County Advanced Power Station and maintained three natural gas plants in the queue totaling 2.3 gigawatts.
- Transmission Infrastructure — planned for more than 1,000 miles of lines, with 85% consisting of 500 kV lines and 70% of the investment already approved.
- Natural Gas Supply — secured firm transportation agreements for 1.325 billion cubic feet per day, sufficient to fuel 10 new combined cycle plants.
- Resilience Investment — included $2 billion for phase one accelerated resilience programs and a $270 million grid resilience project in Louisiana.
- Arkansas Regulatory Settlement — established a 9.7% return on equity and 47.5% equity capital structure with no base rate change.
- Louisiana Regulatory Approval — received authorization for the $1.2 billion Babel to Webre transmission project to support regional load growth.
- Equity Financing — settled $900 million in equity forwards during September to support balance sheet health and growth needs.
- Debt Issuance — issued $1.5 billion in junior subordinated notes and $1 billion in Entergy Louisiana bonds.
- Production Tax Credits — received $256 million in cash from the sale of 2026 credits during October.
- Operational Cash Flow — totaled $2.2 billion for the quarter, compared to $2.1 billion in the third quarter of 2025.
- Interest Expense — increased due to higher debt balances and average interest rates of less than 6% on new notes.
- Weather Impact — contributed $0.24 per share to earnings, compared to $0.06 per share in the prior-year period.
- Quarterly Dividend — increased 6% to 68 cents per share, representing the board’s authorization of a higher distribution to shareholders.
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RISKS
- Marsh stated, “These innovations are helping mitigate much of the material and labor cost pressure we are seeing across the industry,” indicating that material and labor costs remain elevated industry-wide.
- Fontan noted that the quarter saw “higher interest expense at parent and a higher share count from settling equity forwards,” which acted as offsets to earnings growth.
SUMMARY
Entergy Louisiana, LLC (ELC +0.82%) reported an increase in quarterly adjusted earnings supported by favorable summer weather conditions and growth in industrial sales from data center operations. Management narrowed the 2026 earnings guidance range and expanded the five-year capital plan by $1.5 billion to accommodate customer growth and reliability initiatives. The company reported the completion of the 1.2 gigawatt Orange County Advanced Power Station and moved forward with more than 1,000 miles of planned transmission lines, primarily in Louisiana and Texas.
- CEO Marsh stated, “Our standardized design has allowed us to improve efficiency and schedule, through a roughly 50% reduction in the time required for engineering.”
- Management reported that more than 40% of the equity needs for the 2027 to 2030 period are already contracted.
- The company is exploring nontraditional financing tools, such as private credit and build-to-suit leases, to manage equity needs for projects closing beyond the current four-year outlook.
- Management noted that GDP has risen significantly across all of the company’s service regions since the pandemic, reflecting sustained economic expansion.
- Marsh noted that the company is utilizing drone technology to string high-voltage power lines in a fraction of the time compared to traditional construction methods.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- OCAPS: Orange County Advanced Power Station, a 1.2 gigawatt combined-cycle gas turbine plant in Texas.
- Fair Share Plus: A regulatory framework ensuring large industrial and data center customers cover their share of system costs to provide bill benefits for existing ratepayers.
- kV: Kilovolt, a unit equal to 1,000 volts, used to measure the capacity of high-voltage transmission lines.
- FRP: Formula Rate Plan, a regulatory mechanism that allows for periodic adjustments to utility rates based on audited costs and investments.
- GWh: Gigawatt-hour, a unit of energy used to measure the volume of electricity sold to customers.
- ROE: Return on Equity, a measure of financial performance calculated by dividing net income by shareholders’ equity.
- Babel to Webre: A $1.2 billion transmission project approved by the Louisiana Public Service Commission to enhance grid reliability.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Operator: Good morning. My name is JL, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Entergy’s Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press 1 again. I will now turn the call over to Liz Hunter, Vice President of Investor Relations for Entergy Corporation. Please go ahead.
Liz Hunter: Good morning. Thank you, JL, and thanks to everyone joining this morning. We will begin today with comments from Entergy’s Chair and CEO, Drew Marsh, and then Kimberly A. Fontan, our CFO, will review results. In today’s call, management will make certain forward looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these forward looking statements due to a number of factors, which are set forth in our earnings release, our slide presentation, and our SEC filings. Entergy does not assume any obligation to update these forward looking statements. Manageme
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