Louisiana residents already pay excessive electrical payments for a really unreliable energy grid that only recently left almost 100,000 Louisianans at midnight as a result of electrical energy shortages. And now, the state’s largest utility firm is attempting to get approval for a mission that might have main unfavorable penalties for each grid reliability and affordability, with little or no transparency to the individuals who could be most impacted.
If you wish to weigh in in your native utility firm’s deliberate investments, and the ensuing will increase of your utility payments, you could face a variety of procedural limitations to public participation relying on what state you reside in. And the utility corporations could have incentives to maintain sure info from the general public in the event that they know that info would result in larger scrutiny of their funding plans.
What’s occurring in Louisiana is an excessive instance of this company obfuscation. Right here’s what it’s essential know.
Entergy’s opaque and expensive fuel plant proposal for Meta information heart
Entergy Louisiana, the state’s largest utility firm, is searching for approval from the Louisiana Public Service Fee (“LPSC” or “Fee”) to spend greater than $3.7 billion on three new energy crops and different associated infrastructure. This infrastructure is proposed to energy a large new information heart—assume roughly 70 soccer fields—deliberate for improvement in North Louisiana by a subsidiary of Meta, the mother or father firm of Fb, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
The three energy crops could be fueled by methane fuel, a potent fossil gasoline. The fuel crops would whole almost 2,300 megawatts to assist energy the roughly 2,600-MW Meta information heart (although it could be deliberate to be bigger than this by now). For context, the Metropolis of New Orleans’ peak summer time demand in 2023 was about 1,200 MW (see Desk 2 of Appendix B right here), so the Meta information heart would draw greater than twice the utmost energy consumption of the state’s largest metropolis. And since the information heart will run so steadily, the annual power consumption will seemingly exceed thrice that of New Orleans.
The Union of Involved Scientists (UCS) and Louisiana-based Alliance for Inexpensive Vitality (AAE) are intervenors on this LPSC case, with Earthjustice as authorized counsel. As is typical in a majority of these state regulatory circumstances, the intervenors signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) agreeing to not publicly discuss any info marked as confidential.
Nevertheless, even after signing NDAs, there may be nonetheless a mountain of data neither AAE nor UCS has seen, not to mention the Louisiana public. Entergy wished this info to have the next tier of confidentiality referred to as “Legal professional’s Eyes Solely” (AEO), basically which means the one folks permitted to view a number of the most pertinent info are the attorneys and skilled witnesses within the case. In truth, everybody who signed the NDA will get to view the AEO-confidential supplies aside from 10 people, and the overwhelming majority of these persons are non-profit representatives.
Witnesses submitted skilled testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS final month, and the general public variations include alarming evaluation in regards to the big range of dangers posed by the fuel plant proposal, which I’ll get into. However what’s maybe much more astonishing is the quantity of data that’s redacted from the testimony, as a result of how a lot of it was deemed by Entergy to be commercially delicate and confidential.
Entergy has signed a contract with Meta to produce electrical energy to the information heart for 15 years. The utility firm says Meta might be paying for a “substantial portion” of the roughly $3.2 billion in fuel plant prices, however provided that one other 15-year contract is signed for energy provide by means of 2056. If Meta doesn’t re-sign, or walks away from the primary contract early, Louisiana ratepayers might be left to foot the invoice for the unneeded fuel crops.
Additional, the testimony filed on behalf of AAE and UCS reveals that the prices of this proposal are seemingly massively underestimated. Along with the prices that might straight hit Louisianans’ wallets sooner or later, the specialists additionally level out that the dangers of energy outages and environmental harms are significantly understated, which may add extra prices exterior utility payments.
Louisiana ought to reject the fuel mission as proposed
The LPSC ought to reject Entergy’s fuel mission as proposed, except vital safeguards are hooked up as situations. The lengthy listing of really helpful situations made by our skilled witnesses embody extending the Entergy-Meta contract size to 25 years from 15 years, to extra carefully align with the helpful lifetime of a fuel plant and higher insulate ratepayers from the information heart prices. The witnesses additionally urge the Fee to require Entergy to raised research the grid reliability dangers of the proposal, speed up the procurement of renewables, and higher assess transmission wants.
Along with implementing the AAE and UCS skilled witnesses’ suggestions, Entergy must also be pressured to request proposals from third-party energy suppliers as alternate options to the three fuel crops, as Fee coverage requires. Following this course of is prone to result in cleaner, extra inexpensive options for powering the information heart. (An LPSC choose deferred ruling on this subject in February.)
A fast spoiler: as a result of a lot of the knowledge is redacted, and there’s uncertainty about how lengthy Meta will stick round, I received’t be capable to inform you simply how costly this proposal may very well be. The Louisiana public apparently received’t know both, although they’re those susceptible to paying for this large mission. Nonetheless, we will nonetheless get into the unredacted particulars within the testimony, beginning with the potential direct will increase in utility payments. And for those who reside in Louisiana, you may attain out to your Public Service Commissioner and demand higher transparency and protections.
The main points: an costly transferring goal
Entergy filed its preliminary software for this mission in October 2024. Across the time the Institute for Vitality Economics and Monetary Evaluation (IEEFA) filed its testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS final month, the utility firm was nonetheless negotiating the phrases of its 15-year energy provide contract with Meta. And in February of this yr, Entergy informed the Fee that Meta was growing the load of its deliberate information heart by a redacted variety of megawatts.
The IEEFA testimony factors out that this moving-target method exposes ratepayers to further dangers and that the Fee ought to overview the ultimate phrases of the contract with Meta earlier than deciding on Entergy’s proposal. Notably, Entergy is claiming that it doesn’t want the Fee’s approval of the contract in any respect, which might be in contrast to the processes in lots of different states.
The testimony estimates that Entergy clients may very well be on the hook for “a whole bunch of tens of millions, if not billions of {dollars}” in further prices related to powering the information heart, opposite to the utility’s declare that ratepayers could be principally insulated from such prices. However once more, the specifics are being saved from the general public as a result of Entergy has deemed them confidential.
Entergy’s proposal to energy Meta’s information heart will doubtlessly shift massive prices to the Louisiana public, however many particulars have been redacted and saved out of public view. | Supply: IEEFA testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS. | “Laidley” is the Meta subsidiary searching for to construct the information heart. “ESA” is the 15-year electrical service settlement between Entergy and Laidley. “ELL” is Entergy Louisiana LLC, the formal identify for the utility firm.
Certainly one of Entergy’s important arguments for why this fuel mission is helpful to all ratepayers, and never only a trillion-dollar firm like Meta, is that even when Meta closes store after 15 years, the fuel crops will nonetheless be wanted within the 2040s to switch different fossil gasoline crops which can be set to retire. However this declare is poorly justified and never supported by capability enlargement modeling or some other sort of rigorous evaluation. The testimony factors out the numerous threat of the fuel crops changing into “stranded” (in different phrases, basically nugatory) belongings within the 2040s, with ratepayers saddled with about half of the preliminary capital prices on their utility payments.
Entergy and Meta’s plan dangers main energy outages in North Louisiana
As talked about above, Louisiana’s energy grid is unreliable in comparison with most different states as a result of quite a lot of components together with excessive climate and a low degree of transmission capability and non-gas-fired capability that might make the grid extra resilient to excessive climate. This proposal by Entergy to energy Meta’s city-sized information heart may make electrical energy service within the state even much less dependable.
HickoryLedge, an influence system engineering consultancy, additionally submitted testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS, pointing to a number of vital grid reliability issues that might come up from the fuel mission and information heart. A type of issues is the excessive fluctuations in energy demand that information facilities can exhibit, regardless of having a popularity amongst a few of demanding energy at a reasonably constant degree.
Information facilities designed to coach synthetic intelligence (AI) fashions, such because the deliberate Meta information heart, can exhibit massive and fast fluctuations in energy demand. The above chart reveals an instance of fifty MW of information heart load leaping from 6 MW to 30 MW in a couple of quarter of a second. | Supply: HickoryLedge testimony, citing a working draft report by Elevate Vitality Consulting.
The testimony warns that as a result of this information heart could be so massive, these fluctuations may trigger instability on the ability grid, risking “main disruptions” to electrical service in North Louisiana and attainable tools harm at close by energy crops, together with the Grand Gulf nuclear plant, which already has questions of safety of its personal. The warnings echo of near-miss blackout occasions in Texas and Virginia in recent times, the place information facilities and crypto mining amenities have grown quickly.
To keep away from system stress attributable to the excessive and doubtlessly very dynamic information heart load, Entergy could also be compelled to function the fuel crops as “must-run” within the regional electrical energy market, versus “financial.” This implies the crops would generate energy even when it’s not financial to take action, solely to keep away from grid instability issues created by the information heart.
UCS and others have extensively analyzed how pricey of a observe it may be for utilities to function their coal and fuel crops as “must-run,” as a result of there are sometimes extra inexpensive choices within the open market. These pointless prices get handed to ratepayers, and this drawback is already pronounced in Louisiana.
Even when Entergy operates the crops as must-run in an effort to keep away from energy outages, the corporate can’t run the crops 24/7/365, as a result of they’ll inevitably undergo unplanned outages and upkeep outages, as all energy crops do. The HickoryLedge testimony outlines the proof establishing that Entergy hasn’t adequately studied or addressed these grid reliability points, and doing so may add a at present unknown quantity of prices in an effort to keep away from even costlier energy outages for Louisianans.
Environmental advantages exaggerated, ratepayer dangers downplayed
Included in Entergy’s software submitted to the LPSC is a so-called company sustainability rider (CSR). The CSR claims to basically create a path for Meta to pay for extra sustainable electrical energy assets within the area, and to convey these assets on-line quicker. Sounds adequate on its face, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, the satan is within the particulars.
Testimony submitted on behalf of AAE and UCS by CPG Advisors reveals that the CSR’s environmental advantages are prone to be far lower than what Entergy claims, and ratepayers would once more be uncovered to further pointless monetary dangers.
A part of the proposed plan is to have Meta pay for 1,500 MW of photo voltaic and/or solar-plus-storage tasks by means of the brand new CSR mechanism. Nevertheless, the CPG Advisors testimony factors out the dedication from Meta to pay for these tasks by means of this new mechanism appears to be far much less binding in comparison with conventional approaches, like common energy buy agreements (PPAs). If photo voltaic and storage assets proceed to get cheaper, and Meta terminates its CSR contracts with these photo voltaic/storage tasks, Louisiana ratepayers could be caught paying for prices which can be above the going market costs.
Entergy additionally proposes to not establish the complete 1,500 MW of tasks till 2030, suggesting that the utility isn’t profiting from the roughly 50,000 MW of photo voltaic and storage tasks which can be at present “ready in line” within the grid-connection queue for the regional grid overlaying most of Louisiana, and elements of Arkansas, Mississippi and east Texas.
In the end, about two-thirds of the electrical energy that might be generated by assets procured by means of the CSR would come not from the photo voltaic and storage, however from a separate proposal to have Meta pay for carbon seize and storage (CCS) know-how at an current Entergy fuel plant in Lake Charles, LA. This a part of the proposal has its personal dangers and issues that the Fee, and Louisianans, needs to be involved about.
The CPG Advisors testimony concludes that the CCS choice is unlikely to come back to fruition. Additionally, an engineering research for putting in CCS on the plant is barely in its early levels, so Entergy hasn’t supplied the Fee with any value estimates. That is troubling as a result of if the businesses in the end transfer ahead with this feature, Meta may elect to terminate its funds to the mission, which might saddle ratepayers with further prices.
Each the environmental damages and ratepayer dangers are downplayed in Entergy’s proposal, and the Fee needs to be taking that under consideration when deciding whether or not it’s within the public curiosity.
Fee should act to guard Louisianans
The time is now for the Fee to behave in an effort to defend Louisianans from additional air pollution, extra energy outages, and additional price will increase. In case you reside in Louisiana, you may contact your Public Service Commissioner and demand higher transparency and protections from this proposal. Residents within the state deserve higher, and the billion- and trillion-dollar firms should be held accountable for the impacts attributable to their enterprise choices.
Louisiana residents already pay excessive electrical payments for a really unreliable energy grid that only recently left almost 100,000 Louisianans at midnight as a result of electrical energy shortages. And now, the state’s largest utility firm is attempting to get approval for a mission that might have main unfavorable penalties for each grid reliability and affordability, with little or no transparency to the individuals who could be most impacted.
If you wish to weigh in in your native utility firm’s deliberate investments, and the ensuing will increase of your utility payments, you could face a variety of procedural limitations to public participation relying on what state you reside in. And the utility corporations could have incentives to maintain sure info from the general public in the event that they know that info would result in larger scrutiny of their funding plans.
What’s occurring in Louisiana is an excessive instance of this company obfuscation. Right here’s what it’s essential know.
Entergy’s opaque and expensive fuel plant proposal for Meta information heart
Entergy Louisiana, the state’s largest utility firm, is searching for approval from the Louisiana Public Service Fee (“LPSC” or “Fee”) to spend greater than $3.7 billion on three new energy crops and different associated infrastructure. This infrastructure is proposed to energy a large new information heart—assume roughly 70 soccer fields—deliberate for improvement in North Louisiana by a subsidiary of Meta, the mother or father firm of Fb, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
The three energy crops could be fueled by methane fuel, a potent fossil gasoline. The fuel crops would whole almost 2,300 megawatts to assist energy the roughly 2,600-MW Meta information heart (although it could be deliberate to be bigger than this by now). For context, the Metropolis of New Orleans’ peak summer time demand in 2023 was about 1,200 MW (see Desk 2 of Appendix B right here), so the Meta information heart would draw greater than twice the utmost energy consumption of the state’s largest metropolis. And since the information heart will run so steadily, the annual power consumption will seemingly exceed thrice that of New Orleans.
The Union of Involved Scientists (UCS) and Louisiana-based Alliance for Inexpensive Vitality (AAE) are intervenors on this LPSC case, with Earthjustice as authorized counsel. As is typical in a majority of these state regulatory circumstances, the intervenors signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) agreeing to not publicly discuss any info marked as confidential.
Nevertheless, even after signing NDAs, there may be nonetheless a mountain of data neither AAE nor UCS has seen, not to mention the Louisiana public. Entergy wished this info to have the next tier of confidentiality referred to as “Legal professional’s Eyes Solely” (AEO), basically which means the one folks permitted to view a number of the most pertinent info are the attorneys and skilled witnesses within the case. In truth, everybody who signed the NDA will get to view the AEO-confidential supplies aside from 10 people, and the overwhelming majority of these persons are non-profit representatives.
Witnesses submitted skilled testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS final month, and the general public variations include alarming evaluation in regards to the big range of dangers posed by the fuel plant proposal, which I’ll get into. However what’s maybe much more astonishing is the quantity of data that’s redacted from the testimony, as a result of how a lot of it was deemed by Entergy to be commercially delicate and confidential.
Entergy has signed a contract with Meta to produce electrical energy to the information heart for 15 years. The utility firm says Meta might be paying for a “substantial portion” of the roughly $3.2 billion in fuel plant prices, however provided that one other 15-year contract is signed for energy provide by means of 2056. If Meta doesn’t re-sign, or walks away from the primary contract early, Louisiana ratepayers might be left to foot the invoice for the unneeded fuel crops.
Additional, the testimony filed on behalf of AAE and UCS reveals that the prices of this proposal are seemingly massively underestimated. Along with the prices that might straight hit Louisianans’ wallets sooner or later, the specialists additionally level out that the dangers of energy outages and environmental harms are significantly understated, which may add extra prices exterior utility payments.
Louisiana ought to reject the fuel mission as proposed
The LPSC ought to reject Entergy’s fuel mission as proposed, except vital safeguards are hooked up as situations. The lengthy listing of really helpful situations made by our skilled witnesses embody extending the Entergy-Meta contract size to 25 years from 15 years, to extra carefully align with the helpful lifetime of a fuel plant and higher insulate ratepayers from the information heart prices. The witnesses additionally urge the Fee to require Entergy to raised research the grid reliability dangers of the proposal, speed up the procurement of renewables, and higher assess transmission wants.
Along with implementing the AAE and UCS skilled witnesses’ suggestions, Entergy must also be pressured to request proposals from third-party energy suppliers as alternate options to the three fuel crops, as Fee coverage requires. Following this course of is prone to result in cleaner, extra inexpensive options for powering the information heart. (An LPSC choose deferred ruling on this subject in February.)
A fast spoiler: as a result of a lot of the knowledge is redacted, and there’s uncertainty about how lengthy Meta will stick round, I received’t be capable to inform you simply how costly this proposal may very well be. The Louisiana public apparently received’t know both, although they’re those susceptible to paying for this large mission. Nonetheless, we will nonetheless get into the unredacted particulars within the testimony, beginning with the potential direct will increase in utility payments. And for those who reside in Louisiana, you may attain out to your Public Service Commissioner and demand higher transparency and protections.
The main points: an costly transferring goal
Entergy filed its preliminary software for this mission in October 2024. Across the time the Institute for Vitality Economics and Monetary Evaluation (IEEFA) filed its testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS final month, the utility firm was nonetheless negotiating the phrases of its 15-year energy provide contract with Meta. And in February of this yr, Entergy informed the Fee that Meta was growing the load of its deliberate information heart by a redacted variety of megawatts.
The IEEFA testimony factors out that this moving-target method exposes ratepayers to further dangers and that the Fee ought to overview the ultimate phrases of the contract with Meta earlier than deciding on Entergy’s proposal. Notably, Entergy is claiming that it doesn’t want the Fee’s approval of the contract in any respect, which might be in contrast to the processes in lots of different states.
The testimony estimates that Entergy clients may very well be on the hook for “a whole bunch of tens of millions, if not billions of {dollars}” in further prices related to powering the information heart, opposite to the utility’s declare that ratepayers could be principally insulated from such prices. However once more, the specifics are being saved from the general public as a result of Entergy has deemed them confidential.
Entergy’s proposal to energy Meta’s information heart will doubtlessly shift massive prices to the Louisiana public, however many particulars have been redacted and saved out of public view. | Supply: IEEFA testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS. | “Laidley” is the Meta subsidiary searching for to construct the information heart. “ESA” is the 15-year electrical service settlement between Entergy and Laidley. “ELL” is Entergy Louisiana LLC, the formal identify for the utility firm.
Certainly one of Entergy’s important arguments for why this fuel mission is helpful to all ratepayers, and never only a trillion-dollar firm like Meta, is that even when Meta closes store after 15 years, the fuel crops will nonetheless be wanted within the 2040s to switch different fossil gasoline crops which can be set to retire. However this declare is poorly justified and never supported by capability enlargement modeling or some other sort of rigorous evaluation. The testimony factors out the numerous threat of the fuel crops changing into “stranded” (in different phrases, basically nugatory) belongings within the 2040s, with ratepayers saddled with about half of the preliminary capital prices on their utility payments.
Entergy and Meta’s plan dangers main energy outages in North Louisiana
As talked about above, Louisiana’s energy grid is unreliable in comparison with most different states as a result of quite a lot of components together with excessive climate and a low degree of transmission capability and non-gas-fired capability that might make the grid extra resilient to excessive climate. This proposal by Entergy to energy Meta’s city-sized information heart may make electrical energy service within the state even much less dependable.
HickoryLedge, an influence system engineering consultancy, additionally submitted testimony on behalf of AAE and UCS, pointing to a number of vital grid reliability issues that might come up from the fuel mission and information heart. A type of issues is the excessive fluctuations in energy demand that information facilities can exhibit, regardless of having a popularity amongst a few of demanding energy at a reasonably constant degree.
Information facilities designed to coach synthetic intelligence (AI) fashions, such because the deliberate Meta information heart, can exhibit massive and fast fluctuations in energy demand. The above chart reveals an instance of fifty MW of information heart load leaping from 6 MW to 30 MW in a couple of quarter of a second. | Supply: HickoryLedge testimony, citing a working draft report by Elevate Vitality Consulting.
The testimony warns that as a result of this information heart could be so massive, these fluctuations may trigger instability on the ability grid, risking “main disruptions” to electrical service in North Louisiana and attainable tools harm at close by energy crops, together with the Grand Gulf nuclear plant, which already has questions of safety of its personal. The warnings echo of near-miss blackout occasions in Texas and Virginia in recent times, the place information facilities and crypto mining amenities have grown quickly.
To keep away from system stress attributable to the excessive and doubtlessly very dynamic information heart load, Entergy could also be compelled to function the fuel crops as “must-run” within the regional electrical energy market, versus “financial.” This implies the crops would generate energy even when it’s not financial to take action, solely to keep away from grid instability issues created by the information heart.
UCS and others have extensively analyzed how pricey of a observe it may be for utilities to function their coal and fuel crops as “must-run,” as a result of there are sometimes extra inexpensive choices within the open market. These pointless prices get handed to ratepayers, and this drawback is already pronounced in Louisiana.
Even when Entergy operates the crops as must-run in an effort to keep away from energy outages, the corporate can’t run the crops 24/7/365, as a result of they’ll inevitably undergo unplanned outages and upkeep outages, as all energy crops do. The HickoryLedge testimony outlines the proof establishing that Entergy hasn’t adequately studied or addressed these grid reliability points, and doing so may add a at present unknown quantity of prices in an effort to keep away from even costlier energy outages for Louisianans.
Environmental advantages exaggerated, ratepayer dangers downplayed
Included in Entergy’s software submitted to the LPSC is a so-called company sustainability rider (CSR). The CSR claims to basically create a path for Meta to pay for extra sustainable electrical energy assets within the area, and to convey these assets on-line quicker. Sounds adequate on its face, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, the satan is within the particulars.
Testimony submitted on behalf of AAE and UCS by CPG Advisors reveals that the CSR’s environmental advantages are prone to be far lower than what Entergy claims, and ratepayers would once more be uncovered to further pointless monetary dangers.
A part of the proposed plan is to have Meta pay for 1,500 MW of photo voltaic and/or solar-plus-storage tasks by means of the brand new CSR mechanism. Nevertheless, the CPG Advisors testimony factors out the dedication from Meta to pay for these tasks by means of this new mechanism appears to be far much less binding in comparison with conventional approaches, like common energy buy agreements (PPAs). If photo voltaic and storage assets proceed to get cheaper, and Meta terminates its CSR contracts with these photo voltaic/storage tasks, Louisiana ratepayers could be caught paying for prices which can be above the going market costs.
Entergy additionally proposes to not establish the complete 1,500 MW of tasks till 2030, suggesting that the utility isn’t profiting from the roughly 50,000 MW of photo voltaic and storage tasks which can be at present “ready in line” within the grid-connection queue for the regional grid overlaying most of Louisiana, and elements of Arkansas, Mississippi and east Texas.
In the end, about two-thirds of the electrical energy that might be generated by assets procured by means of the CSR would come not from the photo voltaic and storage, however from a separate proposal to have Meta pay for carbon seize and storage (CCS) know-how at an current Entergy fuel plant in Lake Charles, LA. This a part of the proposal has its personal dangers and issues that the Fee, and Louisianans, needs to be involved about.
The CPG Advisors testimony concludes that the CCS choice is unlikely to come back to fruition. Additionally, an engineering research for putting in CCS on the plant is barely in its early levels, so Entergy hasn’t supplied the Fee with any value estimates. That is troubling as a result of if the businesses in the end transfer ahead with this feature, Meta may elect to terminate its funds to the mission, which might saddle ratepayers with further prices.
Each the environmental damages and ratepayer dangers are downplayed in Entergy’s proposal, and the Fee needs to be taking that under consideration when deciding whether or not it’s within the public curiosity.
Fee should act to guard Louisianans
The time is now for the Fee to behave in an effort to defend Louisianans from additional air pollution, extra energy outages, and additional price will increase. In case you reside in Louisiana, you may contact your Public Service Commissioner and demand higher transparency and protections from this proposal. Residents within the state deserve higher, and the billion- and trillion-dollar firms should be held accountable for the impacts attributable to their enterprise choices.
