Meta's Louisiana AI campus could need 10 gas plants. Regulators stopped asking why.
Entergy wants seven more gas plants for Meta's Hyperion data center. Louisiana regulators then reversed an order that Meta back up its demand forecasts.
In August 2025, the Louisiana Public Service Commission voted 4–1 to let Entergy build three gas plants for Meta’s data center in Richland Parish. The plants, about 2,200 megawatts at a cost of $3.2 billion, raise Entergy’s generating capacity in the state by about 20%, the Louisiana Illuminator reported.
The lone dissenter, Commissioner Davante Lewis, said at the time: “There’s a lot of things I just can’t verify at the moment.”
It got bigger
Meta’s Hyperion project was announced in December 2024 as a $10 billion investment. Biz New Orleans now reports it at more than $50 billion, with plans for nearly 10 million square feet and 5 gigawatts of computing capacity.
Entergy has asked to build seven more gas plants, about 5.3 gigawatts. The full plan is ten gas plants, roughly 7.5 gigawatts, plus 240 miles of transmission lines and battery storage.
Then the questions stopped
An administrative law judge in the case ordered Meta to support its projections for investment, jobs and electricity demand, and rejected Meta’s challenge to that order. In August 2026, the commission voted 3–1 along party lines to reverse it, E&E News reported.
Those projections matter to everyone else on Entergy’s grid. Expert testimony cited by Biz New Orleans says a 3.5% miss on Entergy’s assumptions would erase the $2.65 billion in benefits Entergy promises other customers. The gas plants are built to last 30 years. Meta could leave after four.
What the company says
Meta argued the information it was ordered to provide was "not necessary to the regulatory proceeding and could include proprietary business information." Entergy says "Meta will pay the full cost of serving the data center" and that the deal brings $2.65 billion in benefits to its other Louisiana customers over 20 years.
Sources
- Entergy Louisiana gains regulatory approval for massive Meta power project, Louisiana Illuminator via KALB, August 20, 2025
- Meta Plan for 7 More Power Plants Draws Scrutiny, Biz New Orleans, August 4, 2026
- Judge Rejects Meta Challenge in Hyperion Case, Biz New Orleans, August 6, 2026
- Louisiana regulators kill effort to subpoena details of Meta data center, E&E News, August 13, 2026
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