News Release > Powering the Future of Louisiana

Powering the Future of Louisiana

11/17/2016

Entergy Louisiana to Build Modern, Highly Efficient Plant to Meet Customer Needs

BATON ROUGE, La. – Entergy Louisiana, LLC today received approval from the Louisiana Public Service Commission to build a new natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant in St. Charles Parish.

The LPSC vote clears the way for Entergy Louisiana to move forward with construction on the 980-megawatt unit in Montz, approximately 30 miles from New Orleans. Scheduled to be in service by June 2019, the plant will cost approximately $869 million to build including transmission and other project-related costs.

“Entergy Louisiana’s investment in the St. Charles Power Station will power the lives of Louisiana residents for generations to come,” said Phillip May, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana. “We appreciate the Louisiana Public Service Commission’s comprehensive review and decision on our proposal to build this much-needed plant.

“It will provide southeast Louisiana with a reliable source of clean, affordable energy to meet customer demand and help drive economic growth. Building the plant in the southeast Louisiana region will help maintain reliability of the electric grid and facilitate restoration of the grid following major storm events affecting the transmission system.”

The highly efficient, state-of-the-art plant will be one of the cleanest fossil fuel-fired units in Entergy Louisiana’s generation fleet. Because of the plant’s high efficiency, it is projected that customers will save more than $1.3 billion over the anticipated 30-year life of the unit. Customer savings are projected to exceed the project’s construction cost in less than 10 years.

The plant’s construction phase will generate on average an estimated 2,000 direct and indirect jobs a year across the state, increase Louisiana business sales by $1.4 billion and grow household earnings by $476.8 million, according to an analysis by Louisiana economist Dr. Loren Scott.

Entergy Louisiana will employ approximately 27 people to operate the plant.

Entergy Louisiana decided to build the unit after evaluating it against other options submitted through a 2014 request for proposals for power resources to supply southeast Louisiana. An independent monitor oversaw the procurement and selection process, which was conducted in consultation with LPSC staff.

“We are committed to meeting our customers’ power needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A modern, efficient unit like the St. Charles Power Station is needed in the southeast Louisiana region to maintain reliability as our existing generation fleet ages,” May said.

Apart from Ninemile Point Unit 6, which was completed in December 2014, the average age of Entergy Louisiana’s existing fossil generation units in southeast Louisiana is more than 40 years.

Entergy Louisiana, LLC provides electric service to more than one million Louisiana customers. Additionally, the company provides natural gas service to nearly 93,000 customers in the greater Baton Rouge area. With operations in southern, central and northeastern Louisiana, the company is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11.5 billion and more than 13,000 employees.

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