Adds capital spending plans, new details throughout

By Laila Kearney and Pranav Mathur

April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. electric utility Entergy ETR.N increased its four-year capital spending plan by about 33% to $57 billion, a boost that is being driven largely by the expansion of energy infrastructure to serve Meta data centers, the company said on Wednesday.

U.S. power demand hit record levels in 2025 and is expected to grow again this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as tech companies rapidly build out data centers, some of which use as much electricity as an entire city at a single site.

Entergy is among the utilities raising capital expenditure plans over the last two years, in part for the construction of power plants and transmission lines to electrify proliferating data centers.

Last month, Entergy announced that it had entered into an agreement to supply electricity to Meta data centers in Louisiana, a deal that will involve building seven new natural gas-fueled combined-cycle power plants, totaling more than 5.2 gigawatts. One gigawatt is enough to power 750,000 homes.

Under a separate agreement announced in 2024, Entergy is also building multiple gas-fired power plants in Louisiana for a giant Meta data center campus.

Entergy has an additional 7 to 12 gigawatts of potential new data center customers interested in connecting to its system, the company said on an earnings release call with investors on Wednesday.

The proliferation of data centers has raised concerns that everyday homes and businesses will get stuck footing the bill for at least some of a giant energy infrastructure build-out to serve Big Tech.

Entergy says the latest Meta deal will ultimately lower power bills for the rest of its customers, and that the agreement comes under a new regulatory framework that requires data centers pay more for their power-related needs.

Entergy, which delivers electricity to about 3 million customers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, reported a 6.7% rise in first-quarter profit on Wednesday.

The company said its weather-adjusted retail sales rose 6% from last year, buoyed by higher industrial usage as sales to data centers, metal producers, and transportation customers increased.

The New Orleans-based utility's industrial sales for the quarter grew nearly 15% to 15,895 gigawatt-hours.

However, as of March 31, the company's debt levels grew 10% to $34.18 billion.

Entergy also saw operating expenses rising nearly 22% to $2.61 billion for the January-March period.

The company posted a net income of $384.92 million, or 83 cents per share, up from $360.76 million, or 82 cents per share a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, Entergy's adjusted profit climbed to 86 cents per share, in line with analysts' average estimate, according to data compiled by LSEG.