Donna Collins lives about 20 miles from the site where Metra’s largest data center is being built, in a house her family has lived in for five generations. The construction has thrust the small farming community in northern Louisiana into the spotlight as a high-profile example of how the infrastructure behind generic AI can impact nearby residents.
For Collins, the place is “a little piece of heaven”. She says, “I’ve come to know it as a home by now. It’s quiet. It’s rural. It’s beautiful.” “We can’t imagine the changes that are coming.”
The region was particularly hard hit by the recent cold snap, which left hundreds of thousands of Americans without power. Colder temperatures drive up electricity rates — and also raise questions about how prepared power grids will be for future disasters amid increased pressure on data centers. Louisiana has repeatedly recovered from hurricane after hurricane, but now community members and advocates want assurances that energy-guzzling data centers won’t drive up costs.
“We can’t imagine the changes that are coming.”
“We’re very nervous,” says Collins. “When the wind blows, power goes out in many remote areas here. We live in an area where power is uncertain.”
As Collins describes it, the most recent “isapocalypse” came with the winter storm of January 24. The storm was only the beginning – forecasters warned that persistently cold temperatures would leave snow on trees and energy infrastructure across much of the US east of the Rockies. The weight of that snow can cause power lines to crash or become jammed by falling branches.
As of February 5, local utility Entergy Louisiana said it had completed restoring power to approximately 130,000 customers affected. Collins says her home, which is served by an electric cooperative, has been without power for four days. She also has a property she uses as an Airbnb, serviced by Entergy, which lost power for a few days.
Meta may be Entergy’s most controversial new customer in the region. The utility is building three new gas plants to supply enough power for Metra’s $27 billion AI data center in Richland Parish. The facility is expected to use three times more electricity annually than the city of New Orleans. Meta’s data center and two gas plants are under construction, with the data center scheduled to be completed in 2030. It is too early for them to impact the power grid during this storm.
But consumer advocates are concerned about whether residents could face higher bills as a result of increased electricity demand and new infrastructure being built for the Metra, and they are already pushing for stronger protections. Gas prices soared as wells froze, while the cold increased demand for the fuel used in heating and electricity. In the coming months, the increased costs are likely to appear on residents’ utility bills. Advocates worry that prices could rise even higher as more energy-hungry data centers used for generic AI connect to the grid.
“In a world where those three new gas power plants [serving Meta] are online, this will put further pressure on the price of gas and therefore on both home heating costs and the cost of electricity in the mass market,” explains Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE). The Verge.
Entergy did not respond to requests for comment. in a statement to The Verge, “We have worked closely with Entergy to provide additional protections for customers,” said Metra spokesperson Ashley Settle, who estimates that electricity payments for the Richland Parish data center will reduce both grid upgrade customer costs and storm fees by approximately 10%, resulting in $650 million in customer savings over 15 years.
But while Metra has agreed to pay for 15 years of the capital costs of three new power plants, Burke says that’s an incomplete picture. For example, there are greater costs associated with upgrading transmission lines, and Burke is still concerned about increased demand for gas and electricity and utility bills for other customers.
Earlier this month, Burke’s organization and the Union of Concerned Scientists also filed a response to Entergy’s grid stability analysis, charging that it “fails to adequately assess the reliability risks of data center service.” Specifically, they are calling on the utility to re-do the analysis to more thoroughly assess what would happen to the grid if a major disturbance such as a transmission line or power plant outage occurs, as the state has already seen during major storms.
“People in north Louisiana are already experiencing a lot of power outages, and this is new [project] “This process is being rushed, with not enough study done in terms of the impact on the grid,” says Paul Arbaje, energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “If we don’t take this seriously it could potentially cause even more disruption and cause even more damage.”
Across the US, local opposition to other data center projects – often motivated by concerns about how much electricity and water they will use – has led to delays and cancellations. In northern Louisiana, Collins says residents are also concerned about rising property costs, taxes and rents.
META is moving to a community where the landscape has been defined by agricultural land for generations. Collins hopes the company will follow through on promises to support local vocational training and hiring as local farmers struggle to make a living. One of his nephews is a farmer who now works at a Meta construction site.
“I’m not against progress,” she says. “But, you know… those of us who have lived here our whole lives have to be concerned about our water supply, our electricity costs, our property values and taxes. These are all big concerns because we’re going to be paying for it.”
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