Entergy Q1 2026 Earnings Results & Report

Entergy EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.86
• Consensus EPS: $0.84
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.02
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.82
• EPS Beat Rate: 7 of last 8 quarters

Entergy Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $3.19 billion
• Expected Revenue: $2.89 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$296.91 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) is an integrated energy company that provides electric power and related services through regulated utility subsidiaries. Its operations include electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas distribution and other utility services.

Entergy serves customers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, including the city of New Orleans. The company operates a diverse generation portfolio that includes nuclear, natural gas, renewable and other resources, and it supplies electricity to residential, commercial, industrial and governmental customers.

Founded in 1949 as Middle South Utilities, the company adopted the Entergy name in 1994. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans and continues to focus primarily on regulated utility operations, infrastructure investment and maintaining reliable energy service for the communities it serves.

Entergy Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Entered a new electric service agreement with Meta that the company says carries a fair‑share value of about $2 billion (part of Entergy’s stated $7 billion customer benefit estimate). The company filed for more than $15 billion of related capital (including 7 CCCTs, transmission and batteries), says Meta payments will cover the cost, and raised its sales and adjusted EPS outlooks as a result.
• Positive Sentiment: Reported first‑quarter adjusted EPS of $0.86, reaffirmed 2026 guidance, and increased multi‑year adjusted EPS outlooks driven by an updated retail sales projection of about 8.5% CAGR through 2029 and 16% industrial growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: The four‑year capital plan rose to $57 billion (a $14B increase); Entergy says equity needs are at the low end of its 10–15% target (~$6.6B), with roughly 30% already contracted and management projecting credit metrics (FFO/debt ≥15%) remain above rating thresholds.
• Positive Sentiment: Customer growth momentum remains strong with >1,000 MW of ESAs signed so far this year, a 7–12 GW pipeline of prospective data centers not yet in the plan, active RFPs for >1,600 MW of renewables/storage and ~4,500 MW in negotiation—supporting sustained long‑term load growth.

Presentation

[Operator]

I will now turn the call over to Liz Hunter, Vice President of Investor Relations for Entergy Corporation. Liz?

[Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations at Entergy]

Good morning. Thank you, John, thanks to everyone for joining this morning. We will begin today with comments from Entergy's Chair and CEO, Drew Marsh, Kimberly Fontan, our CFO, will review results. In today's call, management will make certain forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors which are set forth in our earnings release, our slide presentation, and our SEC filings. Entergy does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Management will also discuss non-GAAP financial information. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measures are included in today's press release and slide presentation, both of which can be found on the investor relations section of our website. Now I will turn the call over to Drew.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, everyone. We had a productive first quarter in which we delivered strong financial results. We launched our Fair Share Plus pledge, and we advanced customer initiatives with the execution of several electric service agreements, including the one with Meta, that improve our financial outlook well into the future. Beginning with financial results, today, we are reporting first quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.86. 2026 guidance remains on track, and we are increasing our already strong adjusted EPS outlooks driven by 8.5% retail sales growth. Now I'll cover the business updates for the quarter, and as always, I'll start with the customer.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

For several years, we have worked with stakeholders to recruit data centers and capture the transformative impact they can have on our communities through investment, jobs, and other support, while at the same time protecting and benefiting existing customers. Earlier this year, we formalized that commitment with the launch of our Fair Share Plus pledge. The Fair Share Plus pledge is a set of guiding principles that ensures that data centers pay their fair share for the power they consume, plus additional benefits for customers and communities. Our pledge aligns with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge that our customers signed with the White House. Fair share is achieved in several ways. Minimum bills and contract lengths cover incremental costs. Termination provisions ensure current customers avoid unneeded costs. Clean energy terms support a potential future transition. Strong credit terms give us confidence in all of it.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Fair Share also means that data centers cover their portion of fixed costs that our current customers pay for today. The Fair Share portion alone is the source of the estimated $7 billion of benefits we have highlighted. Current customers' bills will be lower than they otherwise would have been because data centers are paying for the incremental infrastructure they need, as well as their share of fixed costs. The plus component is all of the community benefits originally envisioned by our state and local leaders, including well-paying jobs and targeted workforce development, a substantial influx of new support for schools, nonprofits, and other state and community needs, and multiplier effects from new businesses and employment opportunities that come about because of the data centers.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

The plus component also includes a stronger electric system with reliability and resilience benefits, lower average fuel costs driven by more efficient generation, and specific customer benefits like low income or energy efficiency support. The plus component is clearly valuable, and it is in addition to our estimated $7 billion in customer benefits. We're proud that the framework we committed to more than two years ago is already providing significant benefits for our customers and communities, and those benefits will compound well into the future. I cannot say enough about the tremendous work our employees have done to create this transformative opportunity for our communities while also providing so much value for our existing customers, and we aren't done yet. In late March, we announced a new electric service agreement with Meta for another data center in North Louisiana.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

The fair share value from this agreement alone is expected to be $2 billion, which is included in the $7 billion I mentioned. In the plus category, over the next 20 years, Meta has made other commitments. $140 million for energy efficiency programs and $60 million for our Power to Care program. Entergy Louisiana will match Power to Care funding, bringing the increase to $120 million. For context, that is a 5x annual increase for 2025 levels that will meaningfully improve outcomes for our most vulnerable customers. Shortly after executing the agreement, Entergy Louisiana filed an application with the Louisiana Public Service Commission, requesting approval for assets needed as a result of adding the new Meta data center to the system. The investment includes seven new combined cycle units, transmission infrastructure, and battery storage facilities.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

The cost of the proposed facilities will be covered by payments from Meta, whether from their tariff or other contributions, yet all customers will realize reliability and resilience benefits and lower fuel costs from these investments. We also agreed to pursue another 2.5GW of renewables and further investigate CCS, nuclear upgrades, and new nuclear to support Meta's clean energy goals. We'll add projects to the plan as assets are identified. This month, the commission affirmed that our request falls under their new Louisiana Lightning Initiative, and they directed that the procedural schedule should support a decision at the December B&E meeting. The commission's Lightning Initiative is part of Governor Landry's Project Lightning Speed to support economic development that provides significant benefits to state and local communities. We are requesting approval for more than $15 billion in capital with about $14 billion in our four-year plan.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

As a result of the agreement and pending the approval request, we're also raising our sales and adjusted EPS outlooks. Kimberly will discuss in more detail. Beyond the Meta agreement, so far this year, we have signed ESAs totaling over 1,000 MW. These agreements were from multiple industries across all our operating companies, and they indicate that customer growth beyond data centers remains robust in our region. We also continue to receive data center interest within our service area. After all agreements signed to date, including the recent agreement with Meta, we still have a pipeline of 7 G-12 GW of potential data center customers that are not in our plan. Moving beyond the customer growth update, I'd like to cover a few more items. Operational excellence remains a key focus area, and we will talk in more detail about that at Investor Day.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

For today, I'll share a couple of highlights. Orange County Advanced Power Station achieved its first fire milestone, bringing it one step closer to delivering reliable power for our customers in Texas. We expect the plant to be fully online in late summer. Recently, our power delivery team identified more than $30 million in capital savings on the Commodore to Churchill 230 kV project. Our engineers developed a solution which improved the design, lowered materials costs, and enabled faster customer delivery. Importantly, the improvement can be applied to future large transmission projects. This kind of innovative thinking, combined with the scale of our capital plan, will continue to lower costs for customers and unlock additional customer investment opportunities. Entergy Texas is working to expand its spinning generation capacity to serve a growing customer base. Following the commission's feedback, they issued an RFP in February for combined cycle capacity and energy.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Across our system, we continue to expand our renewables portfolio, driven by our customers' desire for clean energy options. We have active RFPs for more than 1,600 MW of renewables and storage, and we have over 4,500 MW of renewables and storage in various stages of negotiation after selections from prior RFPs in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Roughly two-thirds of the MW in negotiation would be owned. In addition, we are actively managing proposals through Louisiana's accelerated renewable review process. These are important tools to help us identify projects supporting customers' clean energy goals. As we indicated on the previous earnings call, Entergy Arkansas filed its base rate case in late February, requesting a $45 million rate change, which is less than 2%. Because bill impacts vary by customer type, the residential impact would be less than 1%.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Some of the features that we requested include an optional time-of-use rate that provides residential customers with the opportunity to lower bills by shifting energy use to lower-cost hours and low-income rates that provide a 50% discount on the customer charge for households that qualify for LIHEAP assistance. We also elected to resume Entergy Arkansas' four-test year FRP after the rate case is resolved. Entergy Mississippi filed its annual formula rate plan with no change requested. Arkansas and Mississippi both have mechanisms that provide cash allowance for funds used during construction for investments to support significant economic development projects. To that end, Entergy Arkansas filed its first annual Generating Arkansas Jobs Act rider in March, and Entergy Mississippi updated its interim facilities rate adjustment in January. One additional comment about Mississippi, the state recently passed legislation authorizing securitization of costs associated with Winter Storm Fern.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Kimberly will provide additional details on that as well. Beyond Fair Share Plus, our employees continue to work every day for the benefit of the communities we serve. We recently participated in the industry's LIHEAP Action Day in Washington, D.C. to advocate for energy affordability for our customers in need. Congress approved an appropriations package that includes a $20 million increase for LIHEAP, which reflects growing recognition of the program's importance. For more than 15 years, Entergy has also provided free tax preparation for low- to moderate-income customers at sites throughout Entergy's region. In 2025, we helped customers receive $54 million in earned income tax credits, putting money directly into our customers' pockets. Finally, we are very excited about our upcoming Investor Day in June. Plan to walk through the clear line of sight for our multi-year strategy and outlooks in detail.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

You'll hear directly from our leadership team on the opportunities ahead. Highlights will include a conversation with large customers on how we partner together to create better outcomes for our key stakeholders. A view into our operational strategy to successfully execute on the large build cycle ahead of us. A discussion of the work we are doing to unlock additional capital deployment opportunities. A review of our approach to maintaining financial discipline. Finally, a deeper dive into the significant near and long-term customer growth opportunities to sustain our strong growth well beyond our five-year outlook. We've had a productive start to 2026 with solid progress and execution across the business. By continuing to put our customers first, we will deliver premium value to each of our key stakeholders. We look forward to discussing this in more detail with you at our Investor Day.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

I'll now turn the call over to Kimberly for the financial update.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Thank you, Drew. Good morning, everyone. I'll now review our financial results and provide an update on our long-term outlooks. Our results for the quarter were straightforward. Our adjusted EPS was $0.86, as shown on Slide four. The primary drivers were from the effects of investments made for our customers, including regulatory actions net of higher depreciation expense, taxes other than income taxes, and interest expense from financing capital expenditures. The per-share increase was partially offset by a higher share count from settling equity forwards. Industrial sales growth was very strong at 15% as new and expansion projects continued to ramp up their operations. Overall retail sales increased 6%. The earnings contribution from retail sales growth was essentially neutral as higher revenue from the industrial growth was offset by the effects of weather, including positive weather in the first quarter of last year.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

As Drew discussed, the Meta contract creates significant customer and community benefits. In addition, we are refreshing our outlooks to reflect the new agreement and other minor updates. The highlights are summarized on Slide five. This agreement further strengthens our retail sales outlook. We now expect approximately 8.5% compound annual retail sales growth through 2029, driven by 16% industrial growth. Data centers continue to be a significant driver, along with growth from a variety of traditional Gulf South industries, including LNG, industrial gases, petrochemicals, agricultural chemicals, and primary metals. As a reminder, we only add hyperscale data centers to our plan once we have a signed electric service agreement, and then we include them at minimum bill levels. This conservative approach ensures that we can count on the revenue that we've included in our plan.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Our customer-centric four-year capital plan is now $57 billion, which is $14 billion higher than our plan last quarter. The increase includes the investment needs resulting from the new customer agreement, primarily seven new CCCTs, as well as battery storage projects. All seven CCCTs have in-service dates in 2030 and 2031, such that not all of the capital for these units is in our four-year horizon. For the transmission investments in the filing, we've made a conservative assumption not to include them as we work through financing options. We have also not yet included the renewables or Riverbend nuclear upgrade investments discussed in our filing. These would be added to the plan as specific projects are firmed up.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

The equity associated with our four-year plan is now $6.6 billion at the lower end of our target range of 10%-15% of the total capital plan. Our strategy to be proactive in addressing our equity needs provides certainty and flexibility, giving us ample time to raise capital. We have successfully sold forward contracts through our robust ATM program as well as the block transaction we executed last March. The agreements we have in place cover about 30% of our four-year need. With $1.9 billion already contracted, that leaves $4.7 billion to be sourced, which is not expected to be needed until late 2027 through 2029. Our forecast also includes $3 billion of hybrid instruments at parent. Slide six summarizes our credit ratings and affirms that our credit metric outlooks remain better than rating agency thresholds.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Our plan reflects FFO to debt at or above 15% for Moody's metric throughout the period, giving us capacity to manage events in the business as they occur. Our financial health is bolstered by the work we've done to strengthen our balance sheet and create benefits for customers, including structuring large agreements to protect existing customers and our credit, solidifying our pension-funded status, and receiving constructive regulatory mechanisms. You may recall our system experienced an ice storm earlier this year. Mississippi's recent legislation provides a path to securitize the storm cost, which we estimate in the $200 million range. This will lower the overall cost for customers. We will submit our filing by October fifth, and we expect the commission to issue a decision within 60 days of our filing.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

As shown on Slide seven, we are affirming our 2026 adjusted EPS guidance and updating our outlooks. For 2026, we're firmly on track. We remain confident that we will deliver on our guidance. Looking ahead to the second quarter with other movements in our plan, we expect other O&M to be approximately $0.15 higher than the same quarter last year, reflecting higher vegetation spending and the timing of nuclear maintenance. Beyond 2026, today's update reflects our new capital plan, which includes investment resulting from the latest customer agreement, as well as other updates since the third quarter. Our adjusted EPS outlook for next year is now $0.20 higher. As the investment accumulates, the increase grows radically to $0.50 in 2029 to $6.40. We will extend our full outlook to 2030 at our Investor Day in June.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

As a preview, the 2028 to 2029 year-over-year adjusted earnings per share growth was 12%. We expect approximately the same for 2030. Entergy is executing a differentiated growth strategy, delivering strong, sustainable results. Through our disciplined customer-centric approach, we are creating value for all our key stakeholders, including our owners. Our plan is solid, with clear line of sight to achieve our outlooks, and we have significant opportunities before us. This update makes our already strong growth profile stand out even more. Now we're happy to take your questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, press star one if you'd like to ask a question. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit your questions to one primary and one follow-up question. We'll pause for a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Hey, guys. Good morning.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Morning, Shar.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Morning, Drew. Obviously it's a great update this quarter with the Meta deal. Drew, I just want to be crystal clear here as today's results just kind of raised the bar again. Does the CapEx increase today fully support the deal, or do you see additional CapEx and earnings accretion as we shift focus to the Analyst Day? I mean, you just had a strong update, should we assume there could be further updates to the capital plan in addition to the roll forward, in the June day, Analyst Day? Thanks.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah. Good morning, Shar. It's Kimberly. As I noted-

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Good morning.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

... 14-

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Good morning.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

$14 billion was added to the plan. The filing had about $15 billion. The CCCTs close outside the period. What's not in the plan is the renewables that are under the agreement as well as some of the nuclear pieces. Certainly there is more opportunity both in the period and beyond. What we've provided here today is largely around the generation pieces that you see in the filing.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

What we would probably expect for our Investor Day through 2029, because it's only six weeks away. It's a very short window. We try to give you a preview of it this time today.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Got it. Got it. That's perfect. Just lastly, in terms of financing, I guess, what are the specific mechanisms that keep incremental equity funding for the $15 billion in new CapEx under 20%? Is that something that would get replicated beyond the current CapEx plan? I mean, most of the new investment is in Louisiana, but do you see the same accretion from DC clustering in Arkansas and Mississippi? Thanks.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, we've been able to maintain that 10%-15% rate on our capital plan for some time. I don't see any factors that change that. There's a number of factors that help support that, whether it's the mechanisms that we have, the forward mechanisms, the recovery of AFUDC during the construction period. I mentioned funding of our pension status. It's a variety of mechanisms, no fundamental structural change that I see that causes that to really shift as we think about new capital.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Okay, that's perfect. Thank you, guys, and big congrats. You keep raising the bar for the industry. Thanks.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thanks, Shar.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Nicholas Campanella, Analyst at Barclays]

Hey, good morning. Productive quarter, like you said. Thanks for all the updates.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Good morning.

[Nicholas Campanella, Analyst at Barclays]

I just wanted to follow up on some of your prepares. You said that you have a pipeline of 7 GW-12 GW that are still not in the plan. You used to have this nice slide around EEI, which kind of showed how much equipment you secured to facilitate growth above the plan. Can you just kind of talk about after this Meta announcement, after the other 1 gigawatt that you highlighted as well that you executed on in the quarter, what is the equipment outlook look like for you now? Thank you.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Hey, Nick, it's Kimberly. Appreciate the question. Yes, Drew did confirm that even after this agreement, our pipeline is still 7 GW-12 GW, and that underscores the fact that we continue to see that pipeline, things move through the pipeline and that pipeline refresh. From an equipment perspective, we'll give you a full update in just a few weeks at Investor Day. We have additional turbines both on that slide, and we're not staying still relative to continuing to ensure that we can support that incremental growth as well as we'll talk about what else is out there relative to all of our other industrial customers in just a few weeks.

[Nicholas Campanella, Analyst at Barclays]

Okay. Thank you. Looking forward to that. You know, there was some discussions in the filing at the regulator about exploring kind of new large scale nuclear studies at certain sites. Drew, just maybe given your involvement in NEI, you know, maybe can you kind of talk about where the company stands on committing to large scale nuke at this point? What the industry still needs to move forward, what Entergy would need to kind of move forward? Is this something that we should be keeping in mind as we kind of get to this Investor Day update? Thank you.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thanks, Nick. Certainly new nuclear is something that we believe we will need when we look out into the long term. Certainly, you know, we've talked about this in the past. We don't think we'll get to something like 2050 without having new nuclear as part of our portfolio. It's something that we are continuing to actively explore and investigate. The agreement that we signed with Meta helps move that forward a little bit. We are in the same spot from a financial risk perspective that we always have been. That is that there is significant challenges that we still have to overcome from a cost and a cost uncertainty perspective.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

We are mindful of what that could mean to the balance sheet of Entergy Louisiana or any of our operating companies. We aren't going to enter into any agreement that creates an existential risk right off the bat. We've said that many times. At our Investor Day, we'll have some ideas about how we could manage that and how we could move the needle on the costs and the risk associated with construction that could help us get there. Our balance sheet isn't big enough to cover the whole risk by ourselves and we're aware of that.

[Nicholas Campanella, Analyst at Barclays]

Thank you.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Hi, good morning. This is Diana Niles on the call for Jeremy. Thanks for taking my questions today.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Absolutely. Good morning.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Good morning. I was hoping, could you elaborate on the 1,000 MW of additional ESAs beyond the Meta agreement and maybe how you would characterize the kind of industrial breakdown there and ramp going forward?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Yeah, they're things that you're familiar with, steel, petrol, chems. I don't have a specific by industry breakdown. Lots of smaller ones. There's many that are in the less than 20 megawatts kind of range. All together they add up to 1,000 MW. I don't have a specific breakdown for you.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. Thank you.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

I will also add one other thing that I just got reminded of here in the room. We probability weight those non-data centers projects. Those are still probability weighted. They're not all in at 100%. As Kimberly noted in her remarks, the data centers only go in whenever we have a signed ESA.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. Thank you. To maybe clarify there could be upside should the more traditional industrial load all come on at the full capacity?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

That is true. That is correct. If they were all to come on. It's probability weighted for a reason because that doesn't usually happen.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Right

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

... if they were all to come on, yes, there would be upside.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. Thank you. Maybe to piggyback on the prior question, and apologies if you already spoke to it and I didn't hear, but I saw that there the study in the Meta agreement speaks to AP1000s. Was that selection of technology a preference from Entergy or from the customer?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Well, we are supportive of any of the, of the technologies that are out there, and we're investigating, and talking with, the vendors for all kinds of different technologies. Certainly the AP1000 is one that is, has been constructed and built and that there is a full design. And it's also a technology that we're familiar with because it's, you know, BWR. I think those are things that we are that we are comfortable with. I think there's some benefits associated with that. We are more or less agnostic to the technology. What we're more concerned about is the risk sharing for construction.

[Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. Thank you. Appreciate that.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the time today.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Hey, good morning.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Speaking of some of those other CapEx elements for Meta that are outside of the plan, could you speak a little bit more to sort of guardrails, timing, other elements you have an eye to before you would go and add those to the plan? I guess similarly on the, on the size and scope, I know the transmission you outlined, but, you know, what are you thinking about as a, as an order of magnitude on the other buckets? Thank you.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Good morning, Richard. Certainly we saw Meta as well as other customers have made commitments or signed up for new solar in, you know, multiple of gigawatt amounts. We do have open RFPs to fill those as well as we're looking at, you know, our own self-builds that we would put into those RFPs to fill that. We would be looking to fill that, you know, over the next several years. You could see some of that come into this four-year plan, and you could see some of it stretch a little bit beyond that.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

From a, you know, from a size and scope perspective, 2,500 MW in this Meta agreement, 1,500 MW in the previous agreement all provides a good framing around incremental solar that we could have, and then you could have incremental in other areas as well. I said solar, but it could also be batteries as well.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Got it. Thank you. That's helpful context. Just turning back to the 7 GW-12 GW backlog, I'm curious if the Meta additions today, did that move through the backlog, you know, backfilled with new interest to get back to the 7 GW-12GW? Even on the industrial side, just like how have some of those trends been relative to crystallizing the 1,000 MW that you also referenced today? If you could provide any color there. Thank you.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

On the 7 GW-12 GW, you're exactly right. Meta would've moved through that. It's now in our plan. It's not in the 7 GW-12 GW because that references data center opportunity that's outside of our plan. You know, our 7 GW-12 GW was never our full scope of plan. As things move through, we've got additional things coming in as well as we've had additional interest. On the broader customers, what Drew referenced on the 1,000 MW is really closing out specific customers that either getting them to signed agreements, which would adjust the probabilities as well. We'll give you a full update on that pipeline again in a few weeks, but that continues to be strong as well.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Great. Thank you. Looking forward to the updates.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Hey, guys. Hey, good morning, Paul Zimbardo. Can you hear me okay?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Yeah, you were breaking up, but we can hear you now.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Good, good. No, no. Thank you. Again, setting a low bar for everyone by saying a productive quarter. My goodness. One, I did wanna clarify, and Kimberly mentioned a little bit, just in terms of the conservatism on the kind of minimum take or pay minimum bills, is there any way to frame kind of what that benefit can be to earnings or cash flows? Just any parameters would be helpful there.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, we haven't given specifics around the minimum bill levels, except to say that on all of our industrial customers, we have minimums or demand charges. On the hyperscalers, it is significantly higher than what we've had on traditional customers for the amount of incremental investments that they drive onto the system. In the forecast period, I would think about these customers are going to be ramping up, and so their minimum bills are coming in during the period, and they go into the ramping period. You're gonna have more opportunity once they get to full load versus a minimum bill. Certainly, there could be some opportunity near term if perhaps they ramp faster. Generally, I would think about it as we haven't given it, but the minimums are pretty substantial.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

There's some margin, but it's not, you know, equal to what's already there.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Okay. No, that's helpful. One other I had, and again, can't wait for the Investor Day. Just as we think about like the capital you put into the plan today relative to the $0.50 of increase in 2029, is there any information on shaping? Is that kind of back end weighted in the 2029 CapEx? Just it seems like there's more earnings to come. Not to ask a leading question, but more earnings to come from that capital. Any flavor you can provide would be helpful. Thanks again.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

You can see the shaping of the earnings through 2027, 2028, 2029 in the materials. In my comments, I did note for a preview to 2030 that we would expect the year-over-year from 2029-2030 to be roughly the same as the year-over-year from 2028-2029. That gives you some indication of how that shapes into that fifth year.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Okay. Awesome. No, thank you very much.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thanks, Paul.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Bill Appicelli with UBS Financial. Please go ahead.

[Bill Appicelli, Analyst at UBS Financial]

Yeah, good morning. Just isolating the Meta update here. I mean, is the $14 billion of incremental capital entirely attributable to the expansion of that agreement?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, Bill, I mean, you can see that filing. That's pretty close to what is included there in the filing. I went through what we included and whatnot, what wasn't, but that's essentially the add here.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

There has been other capital added since our last earnings change. You know, you recall that we added Cottonwood and there's been some other things that have happened. Certainly the $14 billion is the key driver here.

[Bill Appicelli, Analyst at UBS Financial]

Right. On top of that, there is still some residual generation spend that'll show up in 2030. You talked about the transmission renewables also not included, right? When we think about the totality of what that Meta deal is worth in terms of CapEx, it's obviously something north of the 14, right? It's an incremental several billion. Is that fair?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yes. Drew mentioned in his comments that it was more than $15 billion that happens outside the period. Certainly depending on where the solar and battery, the renewable lands gives you some upside opportunity there.

[Bill Appicelli, Analyst at UBS Financial]

Okay. Then when should the full earnings run rate be realized on the Meta expansion? I know you're talking about the CODs are in 2030, I think into 2031, right? Is that when we think about the entirety of the return on the capital being reflected in financials, is that sort of at that point in time? Is that sort of a 2031, mid-2031 period of?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, the CCCTs finish closing in 2031, most of your capital is in by then. We gave you the ramp up through 2030. You know, we'll talk about what longer term visually looks like without giving you specific outlooks at Investor Day.

[Bill Appicelli, Analyst at UBS Financial]

Right. Okay. All right, that's it for me. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Fleishman with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Hi, thanks. I think my questions, a lot of my question got answered on this. Sounds like there is meaningful earnings that come from the Meta CapEx, even though it is largely in place through 2029, the earnings tail a little later. Is it, you know, just as the projects come on, is that?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, Steve, what you're seeing, you know, with all construction projects, you've got AFUDC, that sort of thing. It leading up to the construction, leading to the close through the construction period. Then again, in 2030, I would see a similar uptick in ratably as to what we saw in the years that we gave you.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Right

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

getting you to the similar type of growth rate in 2030.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Great. Then just the $14 billion that you added to CapEx, is that before CWIP or after CWIP? Because we don't have rate base to kind of match up to, from you.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, I would think about that related to the CCCTs as largely overnight costs. I mentioned the transmission wasn't included, and then the financing costs largely are not included in there either.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. You also mentioned this renewables RFP separate from Meta, the 4.5GW, of which two-thirds would be owned. Is that in your plan at two-thirds owned or not?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

About half of that is not in our plan, is the way to think about that. Pretty good upside there relative. We had some projects that we had worked to safe harbor or just get ahead of relative to other solar interests, but there's a good bit of that that's not in the plan.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. Then just on, I know you don't need equity, you know, for a while, timing-wise, you know, late 2027 or 2028, 2029. Just how are you thinking about just approaching equity? Are you continue to try to get out ahead of that? Just, yeah, any thoughts on ways to approach getting the equity for this?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, to your point, we don't require equity until well into 2027, but we have been proactive about ensuring that we stay ahead of that. 30% is already, you know, on the table. The ATM's been an effective tool. We were able to use a block last year, I would expect that, you know, we don't require additional equity until 2027, so we can't speak to the specific timing, I would think about it that way.

[Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Sophie Karp with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Sophie Karp, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on a strong update here. Maybe if you could talk a little bit about the regulatory mechanisms you have, particularly in Louisiana and other areas that are experiencing this significant growth. Do you feel like you have sufficient regulatory and recovery mechanisms in place? Is there a risk of some regulatory fatigue if, you know, the capital grows as much as it has been growing?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thanks, Sophie. That's a good question. Good morning. I think we have adequate regulatory mechanisms in place. Certainly, you've seen our regulators begin to change some of their processes. A good example is in Louisiana, the Lightning Initiative to accelerate reviews for strong economic development projects. I think that's really the key, is if we are providing significant benefits for customers, communities, I think the regulators will be very supportive of these kinds of ongoing activities. I don't know that there would be necessarily any fatigue associated with that. That's why we've really been focused on these things. If we can't provide that, obviously that would be a different story.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

We've been able to do that, pretty well, so far, and we'd expect to be able to continue that story going forward.

[Sophie Karp, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

All right, thank you. Maybe real quick on how, if you could maybe comment and give us some color on how the, I guess the situation in oil markets and the conflict in the Middle East is impacting your industrial customers. Is it a positive for them? Is it negative for them? Like, what's the, what is the situation on the ground in your territory?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Great question, Sophie. I guess generally it's been, I would say it's probably been positive for most of our industrial customers. The things that they are looking at are spreads between oil and gas. It has obviously increased geographic spreads between the Gulf Coast and the, you know, Asia, Europe. Those have increased. Our industrial customers along the Gulf Coast have, I would say probably benefited somewhat from the conflict over there. Typically because it's dislocated the prices a little bit. I would say it's not out of alignment with where we've been over the last decade to 15 years. I'd say prices were, as you know, for oil, a little bit lower early in the year. Obviously they're higher now.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

The spreads that they pay attention to, that those are the same spreads that they've been seeing, you know, for a long period of time. Frankly, we would expect them to continue to stay in place well after the conflicts are resolved.

[Sophie Karp, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen D'Ambrisi with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Hey, Drew and Kimberly, thanks very much for taking my question. I just had a quick one. If I look at the change in terawatt hour sales growth from Q4 to this update, it looks like it's just about 3 TWh. If I try to back into what that means from a, you know, incremental load from data centers, it seems like it's only 400 MW or 450 MW. Can you just talk a little bit about how the Meta facility ramps? Cause if it's, you know, 5.5 incremental gigawatts, it feels like there's a ton of terawatt hour sales that are gonna come beyond 2029. Just wanna understand what that means both for, you know, earned returns and also like capital deployment beyond 29.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Steve, it's Kimberly. You cut out a little bit, but I think your question was how does the Meta agreement ramp, and how do I think about the terawatt-hour sales that you're seeing?

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Yeah.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah. Certainly we have to build to support this customer. You see that in the CCCT deployment, which come online in 30 and 31. They are able to get some ramp in the period, your full loads aren't gonna come online until all of those assets come online. Recall that we have minimum bills on these customers as they ramp, and that minimum bill is reflective of, you know, ensuring that they cover the incremental costs that they drive over the life of the contract. That minimum bill may not be directly in sync with the ramp, for example. What we've included in our forecast is the minimum bill here, but you should continue to see a ramp as those assets come online.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Any Just again, like it seems like it's really a very small amount in 2029, I know you'll roll to 2030, any flavor for what adding 5 GW to the existing sales forecast does like to sales triggers through 2032 or something like that? 'Cause it's just it seems very, very like a significant incremental step up. Just wanna understand like if that has customer benefits or rate benefits that you can pass back or any way to think about that.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah. We'll give you the sales growth through 2030 in just a few weeks, and then we'll show you sort of, you know, how we think about opportunities longer term. All customers are benefiting from this ramp as and from the minimum bills to the point that Drew made, both from the fair share component, ensuring that they're paying their portion of the incremental cost. That will flow through the traditional mechanisms in Louisiana, similar in other jurisdictions. There is opportunity and benefit there for other customers. We'll provide you that sales forecast in just three weeks through 2030.

[Stephen D'Ambrisi, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Great. Thanks. That's all I had. Thanks very much.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Christopher Ellinghaus with Siebert Williams Shank. Please go ahead.

[Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank]

Hey, good morning, everybody. Drew, vis-a-vis the Iran issue, is that providing some impetus or interest in new ESAs and in their, you know, sort of calculus of where the world markets are?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Perhaps. Certainly we have a lot of natural advantages associated with where we're located. We're along the river and the Gulf Coast. We have access to global markets, and we have the significant energy infrastructure with pipelines and low energy costs, and rail and other transport availability to domestic markets. We're well situated with a supportive community that it values industrial investment. All of that has meant that when people look around for places to invest in industrial facilities, they look at the Gulf Coast. Certainly over the last few years, we've seen a lot of interest in onshoring because of geopolitical uncertainty. I would say that this current situation is just more continuation of that.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

So to the extent that people around the world are looking for a stable place to invest, you know, and given the opportunities that are here and the advantages associated with the Gulf Coast, it becomes a natural potential location when you're looking around the world. It's a very attractive place to invest. Certainly this situation is not, I would say it's probably causing people to look maybe even a little bit more, but it's not a new scenario. It goes with the long-term kind of commodity spread discussion that I was talking about just a minute ago.

[Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank]

Sure. That makes sense. I'm just curious whether it was expediting anybody's thought process. Are there any other Cottonwood-type transactions in your mind, sort of in the hopper?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Well, I mean, we normally don't talk about M&A, but I will say in this case, there's really just not much in terms of other generators that are around. I would not say we'd expect that asset M&A to be a significant part of our potential capital outlay going forward beyond Cottonwood.

[Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank]

Okay. Given the significant increase to the CapEx, can you give us any idea of how it might alter your thinking about the cadence of dividend payouts over, you know, the four-year horizon?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Sure. It's Kimberly. We have historically had a 6% growth rate on our dividend, and we're obviously growing faster than that. That has an effect on your payout ratio. That's been our philosophy to balance the growth rate in the earnings in our sales growth rate relative to the growth rate in the dividend, so to date. That's the philosophy that we've taken to date, and I think that that is an appropriate balance as we think about that over the next four years.

[Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank]

Okay. That helps. Lastly, I guess, Mississippi data center interest just seems to be exploding. Can you talk about?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Mm-hmm

[Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank]

... or maybe this is something for June, you know, what's in the plan at this point? You know, is there a significant bucket of unplanned at this point?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah. I would reference you back to our 7 GW-12 GW, which is not OpCo specific, but that's our, you know, our enterprise view of the data centers. We don't provide that breakdown sort of either where they are in the pipeline or where they are specifically by OpCo. Still a significant opportunity before us, one that we're working to shore up and to capture as much as we can. Lots of opportunity there, but no specifics by operating company.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

The data centers that are in our plan are already signed. We do not have any data centers in our plan that are prospective.

[Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank]

Right. Okay. Thanks for all the updates. It's a great quarter.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our last question for today comes from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Hey, everybody. Good morning.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy]

Morning.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Two for me. Thank you for adding me in here at the end. In terms of financing the incremental $15 billion of CapEx or so for Meta, I understand that Meta is gonna be paying for that under the Fair Share Plus commitment. Great setup, of course, you're obviously including that in the CapEx and the equity plan. Maybe just remind me or help me understand how that works from a timing and cash flow perspective. You know, if you're not gonna collect the revenue or how and when will you collect the revenues relative to the construction and equipment payments, and how and when will the $2 billion or $7 billion be returned to customers? How does that work in terms of the timing and how that impacts your credit metrics?

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

I know you reiterated the credit metrics, but how does that work in terms of the short-term impacts of credit rating metrics and your conversations with the agencies and cash flows?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah. Our Fair Share Plus, as a reminder, is our commitment in ensuring that these customers are paying their fair share, and that covers a number of areas. One is ensuring that they're paying to support not just the incremental costs that they drive, but also the embedded costs that are already in customers' bills. That shows up in ways like in Mississippi, we've talked before about Superpower Mississippi, where they're deploying $300 million of capital without incremental cost to customers because of the embedded cost that AWS is supporting enables us to continue to make investments for customers without incremental cost. I think about it that way.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Another example is in Louisiana, we have securitized storm costs on their bills already related to previous storms, and these customers will pick up their allocable portion of those costs. Customers that were paying them will see a slightly less cost. That's how that $7 billion effectively flows back to customers.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. In terms of the credit metrics and timing issues, how does that work, and is there gonna be temporary pressure on the credit metrics during construction?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah. As I noted in my comments, our credit metrics on a Moody's basis are 15% or better throughout this four year forecast period, during this heavy construction period. That has a lot to do with all the constructive mechanisms we have, as well as how we are contracting. That doesn't in and of itself put pressure on the metrics because, again, it's enabling you to make investments as these customers pay a portion of incremental costs that customers otherwise would have paid for previously.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Very impressive. One last one, if I may. The 15% industrial sales growth in the first quarter was notably better than your guidance of 10% for the year and a big pickup from last year's full-year result of 7%. You mentioned in the remarks that it was a combination of new and expansion projects. Can you just elaborate a little bit on what you're seeing, and does that change your full-year expectation for the full-year?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, we did have a good first quarter. On a year-over-year basis, we expected customers to ramp up. That's what you're seeing there. It doesn't change what we expect for the full-year. It does shore up that, you know, those customers are coming online. Even if the volumes were off a little bit, you wouldn't see a decrement because of the minimum bills and other structures that we have to support. We're comfortable with our guidance and our, and, you know, we're pleased to see the volumes starting to come in.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Does it position you toward the high end, or is it too early to say something like that?

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Yeah, it's way too early. It's, first quarter. We obviously have to get through the summer and then all the way through the end of the year.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay, sounds great. Thank you very much.

[Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO at Entergy]

Thank you, Andrew.

[Operator]

Thanks, Andrew, and that concludes our Q&A session for today. I will now turn the call back over to Liz Hunter for closing remarks. Liz Hunter?

[Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations at Entergy]

Thank you, John, and thanks to everyone for participating this morning. Our quarterly report on Form 10-Q will be filed with the SEC at a later date and provides more details and disclosures about our financial statements. Events that occur prior to the date of our filing may provide additional evidence of conditions that existed at the date of the balance sheet will be reflected on our financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Also, as a reminder, we maintain a webpage as part of Entergy's investor relations website called Regulatory and Other Information, which provides key updates of regulatory proceedings and important milestones on our strategic execution. While some of this information may be considered material information, you should not rely exclusively on this page for all relevant company information. This concludes our call. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO
• Kimberly Fontan, EVP and CFO
• Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations

Analysts

• Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Bill Appicelli, Analyst at UBS Financial
• Christopher Ellinghaus, Analyst at Siebert Williams Shank
• Diana Niles, Analyst at JPMorgan
• Nicholas Campanella, Analyst at Barclays
• Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies
• Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities
• Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Sophie Karp, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
• Stephen D'Ambrisi, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
• Steve Fleishman, Analyst at Wolfe Research