IEEFA submits testimony to Louisiana Public Service Commission

Entergy Louisiana plans to build three new natural gas power plants (totaling 2,262 MW) and additional transmission infrastructure to serve a massive new artificial intelligence (AI) data center proposed by Meta for northern Louisiana. Recent IEEFA testimony to the Louisiana Public Service Commission found that Louisiana ratepayers could be at risk of bearing hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially billions of dollars, of additional costs as a result.

Cathy Kunkel, IEEFA Energy Consultant, filed testimony in April 2025 before the Louisiana Public Service Commission exploring the financial risks of Entergy’s proposal. Her testimony found that ratepayers are exposed to potential stranded costs if Meta does not renew its contract with Entergy for the full thirty-year term, as well as the risk of higher operating costs and the cost of additional transmission upgrades that may be required to support the addition and operation of such a large data center load.

Data centers, which can be multiple times larger than traditional large industrial loads, are posing new challenges for regulatory agencies across the country in setting rates to ensure that other ratepayers do not subsidize the tech industry. Data centers are also being used to justify a boom in natural gas infrastructure. IEEFA’s January 2025 report provides more detail on these issues, with a particular focus on the Southeastern U.S.