Entergy to Build Three Gas Plants for Meta’s Biggest Data Center

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Louisiana regulators approved Entergy Corp.’s plan to build three natural gas plants to power Meta Platform Inc.’s biggest data center.

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Meta’s latest and largest data center is a 4 million–square–foot complex in rural Louisiana intended to support the company’s most powerful artificial intelligence models. Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has said the facility, dubbed Hyperion, will near the size of Manhattan. At full capacity it is expected to consume as much as 5 gigawatts of electricity.

The center is part of the AI boom that is spurring the biggest surge in US power demand in decades, leading to soaring utility bills and prompting calls for more infrastructure. Entergy Louisiana Chief Executive Phillip May said in a statement Meta will pay its share of costs for the project, expected to generate about 2.3 gigawatts of power. The utility said it also will build new transmission lines to serve the facility and procure as much as 1.5 gigawatts of solar power.

Meta said in a statement it’s working with Entergy to cover the cost of the project without shifting the burden to grid customers. The company added it plans to add enough clean and renewable energy to the grid to match the total electricity use of the Richland Parish data center, and that it’s launched other clean and renewable energy projects across the state, including one focused on solar.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission fast-tracked the approval after Entergy argued delays would risk Meta building its data center in a different state, according to a Citigroup report led by analyst Ryan Levine.

Some argue the cost to build the plants will raise consumer bills, and the plants will endanger public health as well as the environment.

The regulator “is prioritizing Big Tech’s interests and Entergy’s profits over Louisianans’ concerns about their already unaffordable electricity bills,” Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said in a statement. “There is no question that this project will affect residents’ electricity bills and water supply.”

Entergy shares rose as much as 1.73% Wednesday in New York.

— With assistance from Naureen S Malik