Data centers and Entergy customers

Data centers and Entergy

Our Fair Share Plus pledge protects and benefits all customers

When large customers like data centers connect to Entergy’s grid, they pay a big share of the grid upgrades and maintenance costs that small businesses and residents would otherwise have to pay for by themselves, helping lower power bills for everyone.

Saving customers billions over the next two decades

When it comes to powering data centers, we’re protecting all Entergy customers. Data centers that move to our region must meet our guiding principles to ensure that they pay their fair share for the power they use plus create additional savings or benefits for existing customers on the power grid.

Entergy’s agreements with data center customers are structured to benefit all customers while also protecting existing customers from risks. We have ensured provisions in our customer agreements like prepayment requirements, multi-year contract terms, credit and collateral requirements, and early termination penalties to protect our existing customers.

Fair Share Plus guiding principles

Sufficiently long contract term for service agreement

Ensure the recovery of adequate revenues from the data center customer to cover the cost of new infrastructure required to serve them and that assets remaining at the end of the term either will be cost effective for all customers or are paid for by the data center if not needed by other customers.

Strong collateral requirements

Ensure the data center customer’s payment obligations to the utility are backed by sufficient credit, including liquid collateral such as cash deposits and letters of credit, coupled with guarantees from the ultimate company that owns the subsidiary data center customer; this provides a strong backstop to ensure the cost to serve the customer will actually be recovered from the customer itself.

Guarantee adequate revenues

Ensure that the rates charged to the data center customer are adequate to cover their incremental cost to serve during the contract term and the cost of the existing power grid upon which they rely and preserve the utility’s financial health, particularly its access to capital on reasonable terms to meet the needs of all customers.

Maintain grid reliability

Ensure that reliability to the power grid is not put at risk for existing customers by making sure the timing of the addition of any new large customer’s load aligns with the timing of new generation becoming available.

Maintain power quality

Ensure that data centers are obligated to install necessary equipment to protect the grid from power quality issues that can occur due to the size of their electric load.

Clean power support

Data centers have a track record of supporting clean energy, including nuclear power; our electric service contracts should ensure this commitment is met.

Strong state regulatory oversight

Ensure that the state public service commission maintains oversight on the prudence of costs incurred to serve the data centers so that all customers know that monies are being spent wisely and that the utility is administering its electric service contract in accordance with the public interest.

Data centers and
Entergy

Data centers:
Know the facts

Data centers and
Entergy Arkansas

Louisiana icon

Data centers and
Entergy Louisiana

Data centers and
Entergy Mississippi

What they’re saying

“Contrary to concerns that new data centers drive up consumers’ electricity rates, recent evidence suggests they’ve had the opposite effect, helping to lower rates.”

Daily Energy InsiderRead the news story

“The AI future can seem mysterious and foreboding, and the issues surrounding it, therefore, can seem alien. The logistical trade-offs of building new data centers are, by contrast, very familiar. They are the same challenges that have always faced big industrial projects, and are amenable to the same kinds of solutions. Data centers will make sense in some communities and not in others. The best question to ask may not be whether to build, but where and how.”

The AtlanticRead the news story

“As data centers drive surging energy demand, the real question isn’t whether data centers are good or bad — it’s whether they’re planned responsibly . . .There is a way to have growth and protect customers. Smart development, not stopped development, is the answer.”

Power for TomorrowX

“Newly published research finds no meaningful link between the number of data centers in a state and its electricity prices and points instead to a far less glamorous culprit: bad state energy policy.”

The Daily EconomyRead the news story

“When people say, ‘AI is going to drive up my price of electricity,’ it’s actually the opposite,” Wright said. “The way to get electricity prices down is to produce more electricity.”

Chris WrightU.S. Department of Energy Secretary–The Wall Street Journal

“The hyperscalers are telling their shareholders and telling Wall Street every quarter that they need to spend more, build more, build more compute, and that’s how we win this thing. And we, as an administration, and the states, and the utilities, like Southern Company and Entergy in Louisiana, are doing a great job meeting that demand. The demand is there from our incredibly innovative technology sector. And we’re doing everything possible to set the stage for their success, and companies like Entergy and Southern Company are rising to meet that challenge.”

Peter LakeSenior Director of Power, National Energy Dominance Council–Axios Live: Electricity in Transition: Strengthening the Grid for What’s Next

“Although it sounds counterintuitive, when a big new electricity customer shows up on the grid, it can sometimes help keep power costs down for everyone else, because it buys so much power that it can cover much more of the system’s costs, keeping a lid on rising power rates.”

Robinson MeyerContributor–The New York Times

“Louisiana has been a national model for showing that data center projects can be structured in a way that not only protects the power reliability of existing customers on the power grid, but provides them with real savings, too.”

Jeff LandryGovernor, State of Louisiana–X

“Today, we are in a global race to secure leadership in the emerging industries of the future – and one of the most critical ingredients in this race is energy. A top priority of mine will be continuing to bring more available, affordable and reliable energy to our state. Entergy’s massive $1.2 billion investment will help us further solidify Mississippi as a leader in American energy production.”

Tate ReevesGovernor, State of Mississippi–at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Vicksburg Advanced Power Station

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Recent news from Entergy

Entergy is protecting customers while powering innovation, CEO says at White House event

Jul 23, 2026

Earlier today, Entergy Chair and CEO Drew Marsh highlighted how the company is protecting its customers while powering innovation, creating opportunity and economic growth for its communities.

Delivering energy like nowhere else to the Gulf South region (POLITICO)

Jul 16, 2026

As the world’s largest companies invest and innovate in the Gulf South region, Entergy is meeting them with the infrastructure and reliability that keeps this region moving forward.

FAQ: Are Amazon data centers raising electricity bills?

Jul 10, 2026

An independent study found that Amazon pays for the costs to power its data centers—these expenses aren’t added to the bills of local residents or businesses. In some cases, Amazon even pays a surplus that utilities can use to modernize the power grid.

Phillip May, president and CEO, Entergy Louisiana – Supporting strong protections for customers as state sets clear path for data center growth

Jun 25, 2026

Phillip May, president and CEO, Entergy Louisiana - Supporting strong protections for customers as state sets clear path for data center growth

Statement from Phillip May, President and CEO, Entergy Louisiana

Jun 19, 2026

Entergy has taken a prudent approach to balancing the Meta project’s benefits with significant protections for other Louisianians using the power grid.

Little Rock Regional Chamber, Entergy Arkansas, Central Arkansas Water, and Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority announce resource site for data center facts

May 20, 2026

Local partners working together to support transparent, fact-based communications announced the launch of LRDataCentersFacts.com, a new public information website designed to address community questions and concerns about proposed data center developments in the Little Rock area.

Read the press release from the White House that quotes Entergy Chair and CEO Drew Marsh.