Entergy says Google deal would save Arkansas $500 million more

Entergy's amended application to serve Google's West Memphis data center would save Arkansas ratepayers at least $500 million more than the $1.6 billion previously agreed, CEO Drew Marsh told investors Monday on the company's third-quarter earnings call.

The amended service contract, filed with Arkansas regulators last month, would add 350 MW of battery storage at two sites if approved. Entergy would also procure 440 MW of solar from Pattern Energy's Big Island Solar project, the company said in a securities filing this week. The Arkansas Public Service Commission is set to hear the matter in January. The exact amount of additional power demand and other key details are redacted, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Oct. 20.

For allocators who underwrite contracted generation and data-center load, the figure to test is how much of the new storage and solar bill the Google contract shifts off the remaining customer base. Marsh's $500 million measures savings to the remaining customer base against the earlier version of the deal, which implies the amended contract assigns more of the new-build cost to Google. The January review is where that allocation gets tested, and it sets the revenue backing the two battery sites and the solar purchase.

Google plans to spend $15 billion on Malaysian data centers through 2028, as Private Infrastructure Daily previously reported.

The Arkansas contract is one of several capital items Entergy flagged for its four-state territory. In Mississippi, the utility asked state regulators last month for clearance to issue bonds offsetting approximately $237.8 million of costs from Winter Storm Fern, which Entergy said caused "severe damage" to its infrastructure. In Texas, the company said it has energized the Orange County Advanced Power Station, a 1,215-MW combined-cycle gas plant built to support load growth.

Louisiana regulators in October approved Entergy Louisiana's $1.2 billion, 500-kV Babel to Webre transmission project, Marsh said. LPSC staff also reached a settlement with the utility that Entergy said "resolves all outstanding issues" between the company, the commission staff and one intervenor in a proceeding over several gigawatts of generation and related infrastructure for Meta's planned Hyperion data center campus. The LPSC is set to vote on the matter next month.