(The Center Square) – Entergy is constructing infrastructure that will cost more than $3 billion for Meta’s data center in Richland Parish, $470 million of which ratepayers will be on the hook for, according to filings with the Louisiana Public Service Commission and the Midcontinent Independent Service Operator.
That $470 million includes a new 60-mile transmission line from the Mount Olive substation to the Sarepta switching station. Meta has committed to paying for the remaining upgrades and their load share for 15 years.
The upgrades Meta will cover include two thirty mile 500 kilovolt transmission lines from “the Customer substations” to the Car Gas Road 500 kV switching station in Sterlington. According to Entergy’s application, Meta will construct six of its own substations.
Meta will also pay for a new substation called Smalling.
In 2025, Entergy submitted plans to the MISO for eight other projects totaling $2.5 billion. Five of them are listed by MISO as load growth projects.
As previously reported, Entergy will spend another $498 million to serve two new industrial loads at the RiverPlex MegaPark in Ascension Parish.
While Entergy said that they are unable to divulge the customer these upgrades are meant to serve, Commissioner Eric Skrmetta went on at length about the Hyundai steel plant being built at the RiverPlex after the LPSC approved Entergy’s upgrades.
“Projects like Hyundai Steel would not be possible without the LPSC’s oversight and approval of infrastructure projects like the Westbank 230kV project,” Skrmetta said.
In Entergy’s application for upgrades to serve the Hyundai plant, the utility said that a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month could see their bill go up by around $1.50 per month. Entergy’s regulatory affairs manager Ryan Jones said this estimate was incomplete.
It was reported by the Times-Picayune that the Hyundai plant will cost taxpayers $600 million.
