The data center boom is coming to Louisiana, bringing upside to the state’s natural gas market. Utility Entergy Louisiana is planning a major gas-to-power buildout to support Meta’s upcoming hyperscale campus in Richland Parish.
Entergy filed a request with the Louisiana Public Service Commission in August ’25 seeking approval for $3.7B to construct three natural gas plants and upgrade transmission systems sized specifically for the data center’s load. The utility has already started construction on the Franklin Farms Power Station, a two-unit combined-cycle facility totaling 1.5 GW and expected online in late 2028, while a third unit at Entergy’s Waterford site in St. Charles Parish is slated for late 2029. In total, the three plants add roughly 2.26 GW of new capacity, matching the projected power requirements for Meta’s facility.
This dedicated buildout reflects the scale of Meta’s Project Sucre, a 2,250-acre hyperscale campus. Details on Project Sucre are available in East Daley Analytics’ Data Center Demand Tracker (see map). Meta is currently building the facility, with construction expected to continue through 2030.
Entergy’s new gas fleet is being engineered to support Project Sucre’s maximum load, but as capacity is connected to the MISO South transmission system, the plants will remain part of the regional grid. The interconnections allow generation to flow to other customers when available and ensure the new capacity integrates into Entergy’s broader system, rather than operating as isolated supply.
Entergy has secured a 20-year firm transportation agreement with Energy Transfer (ET) starting February 2028 for an initial 250 MMcf/d, with options to expand. The agreement taps ET’s pipeline network in northern Louisiana, with multiple mainlines such as ETC Tiger and Gulf Run crossing Richland Parish. These systems connect Haynesville production to regional demand, making Project Sucre a new demand hub supported by existing utility infrastructure along a major pipeline route. When operating at full capacity, this fuel network is expected to significantly boost gas demand in the state. East Daley expects that the facility will take ~360 MMcf/d at peak utilization.
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Although Louisiana has about 28 GW of nameplate generating capacity, its net summer capability declines to 24-25 GW, with natural gas accounting for nearly 20 GW of this capacity. The existing grid does not have enough headroom to absorb Meta’s load. Richland Parish itself has limited electricity supply, with only one ~200 MW solar facility, leaving a significant capacity gap relative to Meta’s ~2.26 GW of potential demand. As a result, Entergy’s purpose-built expansion of gas generation and transmission is effectively the only viable pathway to support Project Sucre’s scale and timeline.
Richland Parish has easy access to gas supply. There is plenty of spare capacity between the Haynesville and Perryville hub, which has historically been a wheeling destination rather than a true demand center. And as LNG demand ramps at the Gillis hub in southwestern Louisiana, volumes will increasingly flow south instead of east out of the Haynesville. But as we noted, Entergy and Meta must build their own generation given the lack of grid infrastructure in the region. This highlights two key constraints to this massive data center spending wave: access to generation and access to gas supply. Very few locations have both. – Kritika Gaikwad Tickers: ET, META
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