March 13
Entergy Projects Customer Savings from Data Centers
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
Entergy has announced approximately $5 billion in total savings for 2.3 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi due to data center customer agreements in those states. The announcement was followed after the company completed its agreement in Mississippi in 2024 and a latest agreement in Arkansas in December. The customer savings are projected over the next 20 years.
Consumers Energy has strong protections in place to ensure that the boom in AI data centers does not raise energy bills for other customers in Michigan. In Michigan, large new energy users – including data centers – must pay all the costs required to serve them. That includes the infrastructure and energy resources necessary to power large-scale facilities. They are not allowed to shift costs to other customers.
Texas public power utility Austin Energy is increasing the incentives for residential customers to join its Power Partner program, which helps manage energy demand during peak periods and supports grid reliability. The program encourages residential customers to enroll eligible smart thermostats, contributing to a more resilient and affordable energy system for the community.
Last year, Duke Energy Florida had the lowest average outage duration per customer in more than two decades. Specifically, the average duration of each outage was just 64 minutes, excluding outage time caused by significant events like named storms. This achievement is largely attributed to year-round grid hardening investments. These investments include power pole upgrades to better withstand high winds.
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Industry News
Essentially everyone agrees: Americans shouldn’t pay higher electric bills to feed AI data centers’ insatiable demand for power. But what will it actually take to prevent cost spikes? Lots of states have decided the answer is a “large load tariff” – an unsexy term that basically translates to special utility rates and requirements designed for huge energy users, like data centers.
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is propelling grid resilience through a partnership with EPB that will demonstrate advanced microgrid capabilities to reduce customer power outages. Supported by DOE’s Office of Electricity, the project reached a milestone March 10 with an event celebrating the installation of microgrid equipment within EPB’s network.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approved a 3,000-MW expansion of the state’s Community Solar Energy Program on March 4 in the largest capacity allocation in state history. The action is expected to bring clean energy savings to approximately 450,000 subscribers and push New Jersey into the top tier for community solar deployment nationwide.
Last spring, when the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina installed a giant solar array on its new headquarters in Winston-Salem, leaders of the project hoped it would inspire other nonprofits to follow suit. Sure enough, it has done just that. A 400-kWh solar array is now being built at the headquarters of Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, less than two miles from Second Harvest.
