Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis is calling for a review of the Louisiana Public Service Commission’s confidentiality rule, which allows utilities to file documents as ‘Highly Sensitive Protected Material.’ This comes as Entergy Louisiana withholds key data center power forecasts, including the expected load from Meta’s planned data center in Richland Parish.
Confidentiality Dispute
The concern arises as Louisiana regulators evaluate billions of dollars in electric infrastructure tied to new data centers. The public remains unable to see one of the most basic numbers behind the debate: how much power those projects are expected to use. Entergy’s quarterly load forecasts filed with the Louisiana Public Service Commission are treated as confidential and do not disclose the utility’s expected load growth in the public version of the filings.
The commission’s rule allows certain documents to be filed confidentially if they contain highly sensitive market information. Lewis argues that routine load forecasts are different and should not be considered highly sensitive or market information. ‘To me, I don’t believe any of this is highly sensitive or market information,’ Lewis said. ‘This is your predictions. This is how much industrial growth you are expecting.’
Broader Implications
The confidentiality dispute overlaps with Gov. Jeff Landry’s new executive order directing Louisiana Economic Development to develop taxpayer and community protection rules for data centers and other large-load projects. The order calls for companies to fund the generation, transmission, and infrastructure needed to serve their projects and for state officials to evaluate whether large projects’ demands on resources are balanced against their expected benefits.
The Public Service Commission is also considering broader rules for large-load customers, including possible tariffs that would determine how data centers and heavy industrial users pay for power, transmission upgrades, and other infrastructure. Lewis said the confidentiality rule should be part of that discussion.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
