By Nolan Mckendry | The Center Square
(The Center Square) — Only two hearings stand between Meta and the power infrastructure needed to serve its expanding $50 billion data center campus in Richland Parish, including seven new natural gas generating units, battery storage and hundreds of miles of transmission lines.
The first begins Oct. 7, when the Louisiana Public Service Commission opens an evidentiary hearing expected to last three days. Entergy Louisiana, industrial customers, consumer advocates and other parties will question witnesses and present evidence over whether the utility’s massive construction plan is necessary and who ultimately bears its costs.
Unlike a typical public hearing, the proceeding functions more like a trial before the an administrative law judge. Witnesses who have already submitted written testimony can be cross-examined, competing experts can challenge Entergy’s assumptions, and commissioners will build the factual record they will use when deciding whether to approve the projects.
At the center of the case is whether Entergy has accurately calculated the enormous amount of electricity the data center will require, whether its proposed generation and transmission system is the most reasonable way to meet that demand, and whether the contracts negotiated with Meta sufficiently protect existing customers from paying for infrastructure built largely because of the project.
Witnesses will include representatives for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Sierra Club, all of whom have challenged the claim that Entergy has done enough to protect ratepayers more generally.
Meta is not listed as a witness.
“The LPSC’s role is to balance the interests of all stakeholders in order to determine what is in the public interest,” Logan Burke, director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy told The Center Square. “As it relates to utilities, their role is to ensure bills are as low as reasonably possible and service is reliable. In Louisiana the LPSC is a uniquely empowered counterweight to the interests of monopoly utilities who, without the intervention of a regulator, would only act to benefit their shareholders.”
Entergy says its existing power supply — including infrastructure already approved for Meta’s original development — is not enough to serve the additional data center load. The company said the new customer’s electricity demand exceeds 1 gigawatt and requires both new generation and transmission rather than transmission upgrades alone.
To meet that demand, Entergy proposes seven combined-cycle natural gas units. Four would be built near the Richland Parish data center, while three would be constructed near the existing Big Cajun generating site in Pointe Coupee Parish.
The company also proposes three battery-storage projects and a major expansion of its transmission network, including a new interconnection substation and more than 250 miles of new 500-kilovolt and 230-kilovolt transmission lines.
That infrastructure is in addition to the generation and transmission projects the commission approved in August 2025 for the original Meta development, known as Project Laidley. Those earlier projects included three natural gas units and a roughly 60-mile high-voltage transmission line. Construction on two of those generating units began in Richland Parish in December 2025, while work on the transmission project is underway.
The latest expansion is identified in Entergy filings as Project Evest and would sit adjacent to the existing Meta campus. Entergy CEO Phillip May testified that the additional development requires infrastructure “beyond those approved in August 2025.”
The financial protections for ordinary customers are likely to receive particular scrutiny during the hearing.
Entergy argues that Meta’s payments under its electric service agreement will generate more revenue than the annual cost associated with the new generation and transmission assets. May said the arrangement was designed to prevent existing customers from being “unfairly burdened by the incremental costs to serve the project.”
The company also argues that the new plants would not exclusively serve Meta. Entergy plans to treat the generators as system resources that could supply electricity to all of its customers and participate in regional power markets.
The Oct. 7 hearing will give commissioners and opposing parties their most extensive opportunity yet to test those claims before the commission makes its final decision.
After the Oct. 7 hearing, the proposal will head to the commission for a vote. If the commission votes in favor, Entergy will be allowed to proceed with their plan, though that plan may adjust.