Entergy Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Entergy EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.03
• Consensus EPS: $1.01
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.02
• One Year Ago EPS: $1.05

Entergy Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $3.52 billion
• Expected Revenue: $3.49 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$32.97 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Entergy Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 7/29/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) is an integrated energy company headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. Through its regulated utility subsidiaries, the company generates, transmits, distributes and sells electricity to residential, commercial, industrial and governmental customers. Entergy also operates natural gas distribution businesses in parts of its service territory and provides related energy services.

Entergy serves customers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and portions of Texas, including the greater New Orleans area. Its generation portfolio includes nuclear, natural gas, renewable and other resources, while its transmission and distribution networks deliver electricity throughout the region. The company also develops and manages infrastructure intended to support growing electricity demand and system reliability.

The company traces its roots to the early 20th century and was formerly known as Middle South Utilities before adopting the Entergy name in the 1990s. Entergy has historically focused on regulated utility operations in the Gulf South and lower Mississippi Valley. It is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew “Drew” Marsh.

Entergy Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Neutral Sentiment: Entergy reaffirmed its 2026 adjusted EPS guidance and outlook through 2030 after reporting second-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.03. Results were slightly below the prior year as weather was closer to normal, although retail sales excluding weather grew, led by 10% industrial sales growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Data-center demand remains a major growth driver, with Entergy citing 7–12 gigawatts of hyperscale potential and 3–5 gigawatts of traditional industrial interest. Management said inquiries have increased since Investor Day, though much of the new demand remains at the indication-of-interest stage.
• Positive Sentiment: Entergy said its Fair Share Plus contracting approach protects existing customers by requiring data centers to cover their incremental and fixed costs; signed agreements are expected to generate approximately $7 billion in customer bill benefits, alongside grid and community investments.
• Neutral Sentiment: The company continues to pursue grid resilience and reliability investments, including a planned Louisiana Phase 1A accelerated resilience filing and more than $337 million in Entergy Texas resilience projects supported in part by a $200 million state grant. Management said the staging is intended to manage near-term customer affordability rather than reduce the long-term investment need.
• Negative Sentiment: Entergy expects third-quarter other operating and maintenance expense to be approximately $0.05–$0.10 higher year over year, while higher interest expense, taxes, depreciation, and share count pressured second-quarter results. The company also acknowledged ongoing regulatory and community risks, including a data-center moratorium in New Orleans and unresolved customer-risk considerations surrounding the proposed Cottonwood acquisition and potential new nuclear development.

Presentation

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by. My name is Greg, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to today's Entergy Corporation second quarter earnings call and teleconference. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the call over to Liz Hunter, Vice President of Investor Relations for Entergy Corporation. Liz, you have the floor.

[Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations at Entergy Corporation]

Good morning. Thank you, Greg, and thanks to everyone for joining this morning. We will begin today with comments from Entergy's Chair and CEO, Drew Marsh, and then 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.

[Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations at Entergy Corporation]

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. I will now turn the call over to Drew.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you, Liz, good morning, everyone. Today, we are reporting quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $1.03. We remain firmly on track to meet our 2026 adjusted EPS guidance and longer-term outlooks. Kimberly will review our financial results in more detail. Last month, we hosted our Investor Day in New York, and I want to thank all of you who attended in person and listened online.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We provided a comprehensive update on our business strategy that defines how every decision starts with the customer to create long-term value for our key stakeholders, our customers, employees, communities, and owners. You also heard directly from two of our customers, AWS and Meta, on how we're working together to benefit stakeholders. Our differentiated growth story, driven by macro trends, was a key theme.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

While the technology sector is the largest demand growth contributor in our five-year plan, we also have robust demand from our traditional industrial segments. Looking beyond our current outlooks, we continue to have seven to 12 GW of hyperscale data center potential in our pipeline, as well as 3 GW to 5 GW of interest from traditional industrial segments.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Since Investor Day, interest in potential large-scale projects throughout our service area has continued to grow, we remain excited about the opportunities before us. We've highlighted our Fair Share Plus pledge, which is our commitment to ensure that customers benefit from data center growth. Starting with our first data center agreement in 2024, we partnered with our elected leaders and our hyperscale customers to ensure that data centers pay the full cost to serve them and their fair share of fixed costs.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

For agreements signed to date, we expect $7 billion in customer bill benefits. On top of that, these customers bring significant economic development, community support, and grid enhancements for the communities and states where they operate. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is also committed to protecting customers and communities. In late June, he signed an executive order ensuring that new data centers are committed to providing customer benefits, an order that we see as consistent with our Fair Share Plus pledge.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

The requirements include protecting Louisiana customers, investing in grid resilience and long-term reliability, providing meaningful community benefits, including workforce development, and maintaining transparency and accountability. Importantly, this new executive order moves beyond setting an expectation to now setting a standard required to qualify for state sales tax exemptions.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We are proud to say that the governor held out Meta's investment in Richland Parish as a positive example, providing significant customer and community benefits that meet the executive order's requirements. Now any future data centers in Louisiana must also meet that standard. Last week, we attended the White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge event with Governor Landry, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, and the Richland Parish School System Superintendent Sheldon Jones.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We were honored to participate and highlight the work we all have done to benefit our existing customers and communities through data center investments. The White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Governor Landry's recent executive order, and our Fair Share Plus pledge are all aligned to ensure that we grow and support this transformational investment opportunity, and that we do it in a way that creates benefits for all stakeholders.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

I have a few operational updates today, beginning with resilience and reliability. Far this year, we've had two minor tropical storms that impacted our service area. Restoration costs were nominal and no special cost recovery is needed. We were fully prepared even though it turned out they weren't major storms. Severe weather preparation and readiness is a year-round effort focused on training, grid investments, inventory management, proactive maintenance such as vegetation management, and other activities.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

At Investor Day, we highlighted investments we're making in resilient infrastructure. As a recent example, Entergy Louisiana kicked off a project in St. Bernard Parish that is part of its phase I accelerated resilience program. Improvements include replacing or reinforcing approximately 640 distribution and transmission poles with infrastructure engineered to withstand wind speeds of up to 150 miles per hour.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

In another example, this quarter, our power delivery team reached an important reliability milestone for our customers. Our self-healing network program, which began installations in 2021, is improving reliability for more than a 500,000 customers through more than 400 self-healing networks now in service. Since the program began just five years ago, we have avoided more than 700,000 customer interruptions and an estimated 80 million outage minutes.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We aren't done. We recently provided notice in Louisiana that we plan to file for additional accelerated resilience investments in the third quarter of this year. We are calling our request phase I-A, and it would bridge the end of the current program and the next phase. Phase I-A will be a smaller intermediate plan to help us continue resilience improvement and retain workforce continuity while managing customer affordability.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

In May, Louisiana implemented a rider to support an Enhanced Vegetation Management Program. This program provides for rider recovery of vegetation management expenses above the 2025 baseline spending level. In June, Entergy Texas closed on its $200 million Texas Energy Fund grant to strengthen electric resilience and reliability at no cost to customers. This brings Entergy Texas's accelerated resilience plan to $337 million.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Investments like these will improve storm readiness, harden the system, and ensure faster restoration following extreme weather events. These improvements are also part of our long-term planning and work to modernize the grid and reduce the number and length of outages our customers experience. Turning to nuclear, River Bend Station was recently recognized for its 40 years of service and its importance to Louisiana's energy landscape, providing clean, reliable power during those four decades.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Also, the Nuclear Energy Institute each year recognizes the nuclear industry's most innovative ideas with its Top Innovative Practice awards, and this year Entergy's nuclear team is receiving four awards. Our customers will realize operational and affordability benefits as these innovations are implemented, and in some cases, scaled across our fleet. One of the projects was a first of a kind replacement of the reactor vessel head through the containment hatch.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

This work, which supports ANO's long-term operations, was part of the recent refueling outage, which successfully completed ahead of schedule on April 30th. Moving to regulatory matters, putting our customers first remains a cornerstone of regulatory outcomes that benefit all stakeholders. Over the past quarter, we continued to move steadily through multiple proceedings. Entergy Texas updated its distribution cost recovery factor, or DCRF, to include distribution assets that benefit customers and were placed in service since our last filing.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Entergy Texas also received approval for its first ever capacity cost recovery rider. This mechanism is the result of legislation passed in 2025 that modernizes MISO capacity cost recovery consistent with our other jurisdictions. Entergy Arkansas has new rates in effect for the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act rider. The rider supports Entergy Arkansas's ability to make large investments that benefit customers and provide economic development in the state.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

In July, Entergy Arkansas filed its 2025 FRP historical netting adjustment. This filing reflects a rate reduction for customers, which will partially offset the impact of the base rate case, which itself was already expected to be less than 1% for residential customers. In June, Entergy Mississippi's annual FRP filing was approved, resulting in no rate change. In addition, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans filed their annual FRPs. We expect new rates to be in effect in September for those jurisdictions.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Both jurisdictions also filed to extend their current FRPs, Louisiana for one year and New Orleans for four. We continue to make progress on our other regulatory proceedings, such as the EVESS filing to support additional service to Meta, the Arkansas rate case, the Cottonwood acquisition, and other investments. There's more information on these proceedings in the appendix to today's earnings call presentation. We engage our communities in many ways, but one of the most important is through economic development.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Our 4-state Gulf South corridor is benefiting from a massive construction and manufacturing boom that continues to expand. The strong economic growth in our states is having a positive effect, and the economic indicators are looking strong. For example, GDP and non-farm payrolls are at 20-year highs. Population is also growing after years of declines in Louisiana and Mississippi.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

A strong economy is good for business. It's also good for communities. For example, Northeast Arkansas is seeing new ancillary business investments to support the growing steel industry. This kind of complementary activity creates an industry hub that lowers costs for all local participants and enhances regional competitiveness.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Teachers in Richland Parish, Louisiana, are benefiting from bonuses of up to $50,000 as a result of a growing tax base supported by Meta's data center investments, an example of significant new opportunity in rural communities. In Mississippi, a circuit breaker manufacturing facility is expanding to serve local and regional data center and other electric infrastructure needs. Bringing more jobs and property taxes along with it.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

In Southeast Texas, with multiple new and expanding LNG facilities, the region is benefiting from new college and workforce development programs designed to help local residents gain skills that will support decades-long careers in the LNG industry. Beyond economic development, our commitment to supporting our communities continues to be recognized. Entergy was once again named as an honoree of The Civic 50, which identifies the nation's most community-minded companies.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Entergy was also recognized as the utilities sector leader, highlighting our ongoing commitment to employee, volunteerism, and community engagement. By continuing to put our customers first, we remain focused on delivering premium value to each of our key stakeholders. In the first half of 2026, we made steady progress across customer, operational, regulatory, and financial fronts. We remain solidly on track to achieve our objectives for 2026 and beyond. I'll now turn the call over to Kimberly, who will review our financial results for the quarter.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you, Drew. Good morning, everyone. I'll now review our financial results and our outlooks, as well as activity in the quarter. Our results for the quarter were straightforward. Our adjusted EPS was $1.03, as shown on slide four. This was slightly lower than last year, as weather was close to normal compared to warmer weather in 2025.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

Excluding weather, retail sales growth was positive, driven by 10% industrial sales growth as new and expansion projects continued to ramp up their operations. The effects of investments made for our customers was also a driver. This includes regulatory actions net of higher depreciation expense, taxes other than income taxes, and financing costs. Other drivers for the quarter included higher other O&M, higher interest expense to parents, and a higher share count from settling equity forwards.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

Slide five summarizes our credit ratings and affirms that our credit metric outlooks remain better than rating agency thresholds. Our plan reflects FFO-to-debt at or above 15% throughout the outlook period for Moody's metric, giving us capacity to manage events in the business as they occur. Drew mentioned our storm preparedness, and that includes financial readiness.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

We've continued to stay ahead of our financing needs, giving us very strong liquidity, including cash on hand, revolver capacity, and unsettled equity forwards. We are ready to respond in the event of a storm. We are constantly finding ways to strengthen our balance sheet and support our financial health to create benefits for customers. That includes structuring large agreements to protect existing customers and our credit and working with regulators on mechanisms that support the best decisions for our customers.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

S&P Global Ratings recently published a report highlighting our commitment to our Fair Share Plus pledge to protect customers. They also noted that our credit profile appears positioned to benefit from data center expansion as a result of disciplined contracting and constructive regulatory tools to reduce associated risks. As you can see on slide six, our equity plan is unchanged from Investor Day.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

We continue to be proactive in addressing equity needs to provide certainty and flexibility, giving us ample time to raise capital. In early May, we completed a $2.175 billion offering for equity forwards. Approximately 60% of our five-year equity plan is contracted, satisfying needs into 2028. On June 22nd, we settled 8.7 million shares of equity forwards for net proceeds of $672 million. The proceeds will support our customer-centric investment plan and our credit.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

As shown on slide seven, we are affirming our 2026 adjusted EPS guidance and our outlooks through 2030. This is the same five-year period that we showed at Investor Day. We expect our outlook period to continue to be through 2030 at EEI. For 2026, we are firmly on track, and we remain confident that we will deliver on our guidance.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

Looking ahead to the third quarter with other movements in our plan, we expect other O&M to be approximately $0.05-$0.10 higher than the same quarter last year, driven by increases in expenses that are recovered through riders offset elsewhere, as well as consideration for the LDC sale last year. Assuming normal weather in the third quarter, we expect the majority of our year-over-year earnings increase to come through in the fourth quarter due to flex spending toward the end of last year.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

At Investor Day, we laid out our differentiated growth strategy that is delivering strong, sustainable results. We are creating value for all our key stakeholders, including our owners. With that plan, we have clear line of sight to achieve our outlooks, and we have significant opportunities before us. Now we're happy to take your questions.

[Operator]

All right. Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star and then the number one on your telephone keypad. Once again, star one. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit your questions to one primary and one follow-up. Thank you. We'll pause just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. All right. It looks like our first question comes from the line of Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo. Shar, please go ahead.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Hey, guys. Good morning.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Morning, Shar.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Morning, Drew. Maybe just starting off on the recent federal and state announcements on sort of nuclear advancement. Governor Landry and the DOE are advancing negotiations on nuclear life cycle innovation, which includes advanced reactor deployment. Is that something Entergy is actively participating in, and are you seeing any incremental movement on the three legs of support for new reactor deployment between state regulators, federal backing, and hyperscaler support, especially as we're thinking about the PAC-10 formation? Thanks.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Well, I appreciate the question, Shar. Certainly, we've been in conversations with the state about their interest in new nuclear, and we're excited to get the news that the DOE has moved them to the next phase. The work that they are doing with the DOE is for a lot of the components that would support new nuclear investment. We're excited about that.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

That clearly would bring new jobs and opportunity in the state if Louisiana could be successful in winning that work. I think our perspective on new nuclear deployment remains where it was at Investor Day. We are working with several parties to try and work through the various components of risk.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Making sure that our customers are protected and managed with that risk, and that the balance sheets of our operating companies are managed and protected from new nuclear risk is still going to be very important. We're making progress on that. I don't think we're near where we need to be just yet to be successful in launching. We are continuing to have those conversations.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Is that a 2026 update, Drew, or a 2027 update, do you think?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

In terms of when that might be available or when we might announce something?

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Right.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We don't have a firm timeline. We're working through it. I feel like we're making progress. At the end of the day, as we've said before, it has to be customer led. That customer-led component is what's going to determine the timeline.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Got it. Okay, perfect. Lastly, just on the terms of the Louisiana FRP extension, do you anticipate extension, and what would be the alternatives, I guess, in lieu of the FRP? How quickly are you able to propose an alternative filing? I guess, what's your expectation on a full GRC versus a new FRP construct? Thanks.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Yeah, I think that we have a long history of extending Formula Rate Plans within Louisiana. Our expectation is that we would probably be able to extend. Of course, we have to work with the regulators, and the staff, and other folks that'll be participating in the process to make sure that it works for everybody. We've had success in the past, and so we would think that that's probably a good indicator for what we might be able to do going forward.

[Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Got it. Perfect. Fantastic, guys. Appreciate it.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thanks, Shar. Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan. Jeremy, please go ahead.

[Jeremy Tonet, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Hi. Good morning.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Morning, Jeremy.

[Jeremy Tonet, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Just wanted to swing over to Mississippi, if we could. We've had conversations recently with key stakeholders in the state, and it's really highlighted a particularly positive tone towards incremental data center development. This might be the most receptive conversation we've had in all of our conversations. I was just wondering if you could update us on the potential for incremental expansions in Mississippi and what size you think that could reach?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Yeah. Well, we continue to have very robust conversations in Mississippi. Of course, you all know that AWS has a significant investment there, and AVAIO is also looking to invest with us there. There are other investments in other parts of the state. I think the state is clearly embracing the opportunity and the benefits that come along with these investments for customers and communities, existing customers and communities.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

The Fair Share Plus pledge really kind of originated with our first customer in Mississippi, with AWS. We've been pushing those guidelines the whole time. We believe that there still continues to be opportunity. I think it's beyond the customers that we have talked to historically. I think there's other customers that are out there who may be interested in Mississippi as well. We don't have any specific updates or details that we could give you at this time.

[Jeremy Tonet, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you for that. Turning to Louisiana again, conversations with key stakeholders in Louisiana pointed to Meta possibly reaching 12 GW in the state. Just wondering if you could provide any thoughts on how big the opportunity set is you see in Louisiana.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Well, I can't speak to Meta's appetite specifically. Obviously, as we've said in the past, that all of the customers that we have been working with, every one of them has been interested in expanding beyond where they are. We would continue to work with Meta to expand, should that opportunity come about. There is a lot of interest. I mentioned earlier that the front end of our funnel continues to be very active. It's not yet to the spot where we are ready to change our seven to 12 GW number. It is very active and we're excited about what those opportunities could be.

[Jeremy Tonet, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. Very helpful. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

All right. Thank you, Jeremy.

[Operator]

Thanks, Jeremy Tonet. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with Truist Securities. Richard, please go ahead. Actually, one moment. Just had a technical difficulty. Richard, if you could queue back up, please. In the meantime, we will go to Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies for the next question. Paul, please go ahead.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Hi. Good afternoon. Hope you can hear me okay.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Hey, Paul. We can hear you great.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Good. Always ready in the on-deck circle. Just wanted to check in. I know you know that interest has grown since the Investor Day. Is there any flavor or quantification you can put on that, whether it's expansions from existing customers, specific jurisdiction, just anything that would be helpful. Thank you.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

It's in our existing jurisdictions, the three jurisdictions primarily. It is significant, I'll say that. In the seven to 12, we're already probability weighting those numbers, because the actual queue size is much greater than that. This interest is potentially adding significantly to that, but it's more like indications of interest, I would say, at this point, rather than full-fledged proposals kind of ready to go.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

It's still early innings, but it is a lot of volume that we are seeing come in that is showing interest. We're excited about what that could turn into. Our existing portfolio of signed electric service agreements started as indications of interest as well. We think that there could be some opportunity here.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Okay. No, that's great. The other one I want to touch on, just on Cottonwood. I know you're a creative team. Are there any other options potentially involving large load customers to come up with a different configuration or otherwise reduce the bill impact on customers? Just any color would be helpful.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Yeah. I appreciate that question, Paul. We are working with folks to think about how to mitigate the impact. The reality is that we know that Cottonwood isn't the shiniest new plant out there. It is the most economic opportunity for our existing customers and the non-data center industrial growth that we are seeing.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Because that load is coming on over the next few years, and the alternative is a new plant that won't be available for several years, until the early part of the next decade is our expectation. The cost of that would be much greater than picking up Cottonwood and you would also be at risk for the current market environment, which is much tighter than it has been over the recent past.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We think it's the best option to help with the steel mills and LNG facilities and petrochemical facilities that are continuing to grow in Louisiana. Having said all that, we are working with stakeholders to come up with ways to mitigate some of that, particularly the upfront, right? The biggest issue is a timing question, because the full plant is what's available at the beginning of next year.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

It's for sale now. It's not for sale at the ideal time when all these other customers are arriving that aren't data centers. We're working through that and figuring out ways that we can manage the risks. We feel confident we'll come up with something. It's a process. We're working through the normal regulatory process. We'll figure out how to make it work.

[Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies]

Awesome. Thank you. Best of luck.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thanks, Paul. We have Richard Sunderland back from Truist Securities. Richard, sorry about that. Please go ahead.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Hey, good morning. Can you hear me?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We can.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Great. Thank you. I'll pick it up with a few more regulatory items. I know that staff and intervener testimony is just about to hit in the Meta expansion docket, I guess I'm curious how you're thinking about that process. Maybe if settlements have passed to resolve that, given the fallout from the Governor last month and all the work from Meta in the State.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Well, I think that the Meta project is bringing substantial benefits to the State of Louisiana. We've already seen a massive rise in tax collections, for example, in Richland Parish. Not only in Richland Parish, a lot of the surrounding parishes are seeing quite a bit of uplift as well. The benefits associated with this investment are already being seen and felt in the communities where it's happening.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

We continue to see a lot of support for data centers in Louisiana. We also see them in Mississippi and Arkansas for that matter, as well. We continue to believe that we'll find a way to manage through the regulatory process. The principles associated with the Fair Share Plus pledge are the primary things that should help out a lot with that.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

They are paying their entire incremental costs during the life of the contract, they are paying a tariff rate, which includes fixed costs and other things over and above that. That's all in the minimum bill. That's what'll be the conversation within the regulatory process. We got to work through it and allow the regulators to reach their decision. We still see a lot of opportunity there.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Got it. I appreciate all the color there. Could you speak a little bit more about that upcoming accelerated resilience filing and the goals of phase I-A versus phase II? I guess, is this about staging some of the work to manage the totality of what is flowing through customer bills, or are you thinking about the overall program in any different fashion?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

No, it's the former rather than the latter. We do need to make these investments long-term to support resilience for our customers. As we all know, electricity becomes more important every day. The critical nature of that means that we have to have a more reliable and resilient grid to support it. That work is going to need to happen. This is more of a nod towards trying to make sure that we can manage the affordability questions that are out there today. Ultimately, this will be highly economic for customers. Of course, near-term bills are always a challenge, we're working with regulators to help manage that.

[Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Great. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thanks, Richard. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Andrew, please go ahead.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Thank you. Good morning, everybody.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Good morning.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

First question is, you've obviously had a lot of success with data centers, you've just emphasized how much support you do have from state and local politicians. There's obviously this unavoidable nationwide trend of pushback and NIMBYism. Are you seeing much of that? If so, where? How are you reacting? Is it alone or with hyperscalers and other stakeholders? Given how much support that you do have, do you think of the risk more in terms of delays or cancellations and relocations? Just holistically, you talk about a lot of the support you have, but how do you think about the opposition?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

That's a great question. Yes, we see a lot of support in our jurisdictions, but there are pockets where there are concerns. Certainly, those have popped up in various places. A great example of that is just here in New Orleans. Currently, we're under a moratorium for data centers. That's not unlike pushback that we've seen for various technologies in the past, whether it's gas plants or solar facilities, batteries, perhaps.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Typically, what we have done is work with stakeholders to make sure that everybody understands the need. We work with them to address concerns, then we're able to move forward. For example, in the case of New Orleans, we're under a current moratorium. Our hope is that we can work with the city to address the concerns that they have, and lift the moratorium.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Because there are significant benefits that could come to customers and communities when these investments occur. That's been our typical approach, and so we see that working in a lot of communities. Most communities, particularly ones that are nearby where data centers are having the most positive impact, are asking how can they have a similar investment in their community. We are working across a lot of legal areas. I would say, counties, parishes, the states, to ensure that the benefits are spread as far and wide as we can make them.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay, great. Thank you. In today's prepared remarks, you spent quite a bit of time emphasizing resilience investments and vegetation management, things like that. What role do the hyperscalers play in those efforts, if any? Are they treated just like any other C&I customers? Or given things like the Fair Share Plus pledge, might there be opportunity for them to do more? I think in Louisiana, customers are paying lower storm charges on their bills, for example. Are data center investments directly tied to these resilience efforts, or could they be going forward? How do you think about that?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Yeah. They are definitely supporting the resilience efforts, albeit generally indirectly. In the case of Meta in Louisiana, as you said, they are a full-tariff customer. They are just like every other customer in. If you're a customer in Louisiana, you're going to be picking up some of the securitization charges. They are picking up a cost of past storms. They'll be picking up a piece of any future costs for storms or resilience for storms.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

That's lowering the burden on our existing customers. Also the infrastructure that they are supporting that's getting built. That is more resilient infrastructure. In some cases, it's looping existing infrastructure, and that's making our existing infrastructure more resilient just by that. It's contributing in a number of ways. They're very positive the way that they're supporting it. It's coming through a number of different avenues.

[Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Good stuff. Thank you, Drew.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you, Andrew.

[Operator]

All right. Thank you, Andrew. Our final question today comes from the line of Steve D'Ambrisi with RBC Capital Markets. Steve, please go ahead.

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

Andrew, thanks very much for taking my question. I just had a quick one. At the Analyst Day, at 1Q and the 10-Q, you had updated that I think you had three additional power island equipment under contract with exclusivity, and then I think at the Analyst Day, you moved to six. I don't think your Q is out, any additional, I guess, one near-term spots that you've secured, and then any thought to, as you deal with this load, potentially significantly increasing into the 2035 period, doing a very chunky additional exclusivity agreement that phases you further into the middle of the next decade?

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

Steve, it's Kimberly. Good morning. We continue to look to stay ahead on what we see as opportunities. While you won't see in the Q this quarter that we've added additional turbines or plant island equipment since Investor Day, that's because something that we continue to watch and to monitor. As you pointed out, we have about 7.5 GW of plant island equipment, which is in the low end of our 10 to 17 opportunity that we have out there.

[Kimberly Fontan, CFO at Entergy Corporation]

As Drew mentioned, we're seeing a lot of interest on the front end of the funnel. As we work through that, we'll certainly be making sure that we're staying ahead as it relates to the power to support that. No change at this point, but certainly continuing to watch that and make sure that we're keeping ahead on that as we move through the year.

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

Okay. That's great. Thanks, Kimberly. Just another one, unrelated. Just on the MISO futures process, obviously Tranche 1 and Tranche 2.1 have kind of been focused on Northern MISO and there have been plenty of discussions about what needs to get done in MISO in the southeast. Can you talk about where that process sits for you guys and how you expect Entergy to potentially participate in that?

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Yeah, that's a great question. We've been building so much transmission. We have over 1,000 mi of transmission that we are building right now to support new customers as well as resilience investment opportunities that are out there. That is changing the nature of our grid quite rapidly. I guess the original formulation of those processes within MISO for long range transmission planning were assuming a more stable environment.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Clearly it's changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. Our work with MISO has been focusing more on load pockets within the southern part of our system. We're working with them on some of that. Changing perhaps some of the nature of what it means for some of the long range transmission planning. We are seeing a lot of transmission build already just to serve our customers as the economic activity continues to grow.

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

Great. Thanks, Drew. Appreciate the time.

[Drew Marsh, Chair and CEO at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you, Steve.

[Operator]

Thanks, Steve. That does conclude our Q&A session today. At this time, I will now turn the call back over to Liz Hunter for closing comments. Liz?

[Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations at Entergy Corporation]

Thank you, Greg, and thanks to everyone for participating this morning. Our quarterly report on Form 10-Q is due to the SEC on August 10th and provides more details and disclosures about our financial statements. Events that occur prior to the date of our 10-Q filing that provide additional evidence of conditions that existed at the date of the balance sheet would be reflected in our financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

[Liz Hunter, VP of Investor Relations at Entergy Corporation]

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]

Thanks, Liz, and ladies and gentlemen, again, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect. Have a great day, everyone.

Participants

Executives

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

Analysts

• Shar Pourreza, Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Jeremy Tonet, Analyst at JPMorgan
• Paul Zimbardo, Analyst at Jefferies
• Richard Sunderland, Analyst at Truist Securities
• Andrew Weisel, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Steve D'Ambrisi, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets