Entergy announces $5B in customer savings delivered by data center agreements; issues "Fair Share Plus" pledge

PR Newswire

More than 2 million customers in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana
to see benefits over next two decades

NEW ORLEANS, March 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy today announced approximately $5 billion in total savings for 2.3 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi because of data center customer agreements in those states. This announcement comes nearly two years since the company completed its first agreement in Mississippi in 2024 and just weeks after action on its latest agreement in Arkansas in December. The customer savings are projected over the next 20 years and come after the regulatory approval or acknowledgement of the public service commissions in those states.

"We proactively worked with our state leaders to recruit a new industry with attractive power agreements that protect and benefit our existing customers," said Drew Marsh, Entergy chair and chief executive officer. "Our respective public service commissions provided the collaboration, oversight and direction needed to make this emerging high-tech and electric future a win for everyone in our region. This public-private partnership is creating new, well-paying jobs, investments and community improvements for the people we jointly serve and will provide lower cost power in the coming years for our customers."

"This announcement further supports the Trump administration's ratepayer protection pledge unveiled yesterday at the White House. We remain in close contact with the administration and look forward to our continued partnership to ensure these protections for our customers and do our part in helping the United States secure the energy it needs to extend its leadership in global AI advancements," Marsh added.

Economic and energy benefits

Starting in 2024, the Entergy region saw the arrival of data center projects by five major technology companies, among other commercial agreements:

• AWS announced two campuses in Madison County, Mississippi, in January 2024
• AWS announced a third campus in Warren County, Mississippi, in November 2025
• Meta unveiled a campus in Rayville, Louisiana, in December 2024
• Avaio Digital introduced a campus in Rankin County, Mississippi, in August 2025
• Avaio Digital announced a campus in Little Rock, Arkansas, in January 2026
• Google revealed a campus in West Memphis, Arkansas, in October 2025
• Hut 8 reported a campus in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, in December 2025

The economic and community benefits of these data center projects are expected to be transformative for the three states. The projects are expected to generate approximately $47 billion in total new investment for communities in the region, thousands of high-tech jobs, millions of dollars in new tax revenues, improved local infrastructure, spin-off new business and employment opportunities, and a substantial influx of new philanthropic support for schools, non-profits, low-income families, workforce development and other state and community needs.

Further, the power bill benefits for Entergy customers announced today will be just as transformative and provide direct savings for millions of customers regardless of whether they live near the projects. The customer savings will come in different ways for each state, including new projects to strengthen the overall energy grid, reduced bill impacts from those grid infrastructure projects, residential customers paying a smaller share of the cost for new power generation facilities and lower bill fees for storm recovery work.

$2 billion+ savings for Mississippi customers

Entergy Mississippi announced rates that are significantly less than they otherwise would have been during the replacement construction of its power plants without the added contribution of the new AWS data center project, among others. The company is also increasing its investment in grid improvements to reduce power outages at no additional cost to existing customers thanks to the revenues from the project's power sales.

"Thanks to the direction and engagement of Governor Reeves, the Mississippi Legislature and the Mississippi Public Service Commission, these large technology customers will help pay the cost for needed power grid maintenance and upgrades that would otherwise have been borne by our existing customers," said Haley Fisackerly, Entergy Mississippi president and CEO. "During a rising cost environment, when we are having to replace two half-century old power plants with new units, securing such relief right now is perfect timing for our residential and small commercial customers."

$1.7 billion savings for Arkansas customers

Likewise, Entergy Arkansas has announced up to $1.7 billion in savings for its customers thanks to the newly announced Google and Avaio data center projects. Google has agreed to support the construction of a new 600-megawatt solar and 350-megawatt battery facility that will further diversify the company's power portfolio and from which all Entergy Arkansas customers will receive power.

"Our customers in Arkansas are going to see bills lower than they otherwise would have been if it had not been for Governor Sarah Sanders' successful recruitment of Google and the Arkansas Public Service Commission's review and approval of the contract," said Laura Landreaux, Entergy Arkansas president and CEO. "And this benefit is on top of Google covering its full cost to serve."

$800 million savings for Louisiana customers

Entergy Louisiana's data center agreements are not only providing job and investment benefits but also providing savings of approximately $800 million. Technology giant Meta's savings alone provide a full 10% reduction in both storm recovery and grid resilience costs for Louisiana customers.

In addition to lower electric bills for customers, all three Entergy companies have filed plans with their state commissions confirming their favorable "resource adequacy," or the ability to serve existing customer power needs now and into the future, regardless of service to data center projects.

State oversight and direction

The large amounts of electricity these data center facilities require has raised questions nationally about how that will impact the price and reliability of power for existing electric customers.

Entergy has entered into thoughtful customer service agreements with data center companies that require them to pay the direct power costs to serve these power-intensive facilities and provide added benefits for existing customers. Additionally, the state public service commissions for Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi have exercised oversight to ensure these and future data center projects do not negatively impact electric customers in their states who are sharing the same power grid.

In each state, Entergy has been able to serve these large projects while maintaining power reliability standards for all its customers. The three states have one key advantage over other states experiencing bill spikes and reliability issues due to data centers – state oversight of a regulated electric utility.

"Some states have deregulated and not maintained authority over resource adequacy. In states where this authority has been relinquished without proper oversight, customers are experiencing higher electric bills and serious questions about the future availability of reliable power to serve their needs due to inadequate generation," said Phillip May, Entergy Louisiana president and CEO. "I'm grateful that Governor Landry and the Louisiana Public Service Commission have preserved this customer advantage inherent in our rate-regulated model, and we will continue to follow their leadership and regulatory oversight on these projects."

When a regulated utility builds new power generation, the state or state public service commission may impose conditions or other requirements to protect the interests of the utility's customers. By contrast, if power generation is built by a developer or a large customer that later seeks to connect to the grid, the state commission has no authority over that interconnection and no ability to regulate who ultimately bears the resulting costs or to manage reliability issues they may cause.

Our guiding principles – Fair Share Plus

Entergy's existing agreements with data center customers have been 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.

As part of today's announcement and as a continuation of these existing customer protections, Entergy has outlined these guiding principles that inform its agreements with large data centers to ensure all power customers benefit from data center expansion. The company expects to continue to insist upon these guiding principles that safeguard its customers in future data center agreements.

"State leaders made it very clear to us that protecting and benefiting existing electric customers in our agreements should be our overriding goal, and we have carried that directive in our guiding principles," said Marsh.

Entergy calls these guiding principles "Fair Share Plus" because they ensure that data centers pay their fair share for the power they use plus produce additional savings or benefits for existing customers on the power grid. Those principles are:

• 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 Commission 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.

"Thanks to the engagement and careful regulatory oversight of the Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Public Service Commissions, our region of the country is proving that households and high tech can coexist on the same power grid to the benefit of both," Marsh added. "U.S. tech companies are getting the project speed and power they need to help America compete globally, and residential customers are getting new job opportunities, needed community investments, and an important new partner to help cover some of the costs required to maintain and strengthen the power grid."

The customer savings are calculated by comparing the expected data center revenues over the initial contract term to the incremental cost of serving the customer, including infrastructure investment in generation and transmission and an appropriate allocation of embedded costs when new investment is not required. The savings calculations reflect avoided rate actions due to the increased revenues together with contributions to mandatory riders, such as formula rate plans, storm and resilience riders. Adding these new customers to the system spreads costs across a larger customer base and contributes to the savings. The savings also reflect the approved ratemaking mechanisms and other regulatory requirements applicable to each Entergy utility.

Learn how data centers are bringing big benefits to Entergy's communities by visiting Entergy.com/DataCenters.

About Entergy

Entergy (NYSE: ETR) generates, transmits and distributes electricity to power life for more than 3 million customers through our operating companies in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. We're focused on keeping costs for our customers as low as possible while providing reliable energy that our communities count on. We're also investing in growth for the future with a more resilient, cleaner energy system that includes modern natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy generation. As a nationally recognized leader in sustainability and corporate citizenship, we deliver more than $100 million in economic benefits each year to the communities we serve through philanthropy, volunteerism and advocacy. Entergy is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has approximately 12,000 employees. Learn more at Entergy.com and connect with @Entergy on social media.

Download a high-resolution Entergy logo here

SOURCE Entergy Corporation