# Bethel Direct Testimony on JPS — Industrial Load Growth & Economic Development [[John P. Bethel]]'s Direct Testimony as Director of Public Affairs at [[Entergy Arkansas]], filed 2025-08-01 in support of the [[Jefferson Power Station|JPS]] CECPN application. **The corpus's most explicit public-record discussion of data-center / industrial load growth as the justification for a new natural-gas plant.** The "industrial load growth" framing is developed at length, but the critical numerical evidence — Table 1, Year-Over-Year Industrial Load Growth 2026–2030 — is sealed under HSPI. ## What's inside - 44 pages (the redacted version). Bethel's full direct testimony plus exhibits. ## Key takeaways ### EAL's economic-development team - EAL has a "dedicated economic development team that works closely with existing and potential customers with the goal of locating additional business and investment in the Company's service territory." - Partners: **[[Arkansas Economic Development Commission]]** (AEDC) and **Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce**. - Website: **https://goenergy.com/our-region/arkansas/** — designed to attract site selectors and companies looking to expand. ### Industrial load growth — the testimony - "EAL's load forecasting methodology... for the industrial class, load forecasts are developed on an individual customer basis for existing customers... for prospective new customers or planned incremental load additions by existing customers, EAL develops a forecast for each project based on input from EAL's economic development team." - **The "Highly Sensitive Table 1 — Year-Over-Year Industrial Load Growth"** (2026 percent, 2027 percent, 2028 percent, 2029 percent, 2030 percent) is **filed under PROTECTED SEAL**. The public version shows the table with the percent values empty. - **"Existing industrial customer loads are typically relatively flat year-to-year due to fairly predictable consumption patterns. So, the year-over-year industrial class load growth reflected in Table 1 is notable and largely attributable to prospective new customer growth generally, albeit not with respect to any particular individual prospective customer, and planned block load additions by existing customers."** ### The 161 MW figure — the closest public reference to the data-center contracted load > "Since submission of the 2024 IRP, as of July 1, 2025, **I understand that EAL has executed new electric service agreements totaling 161 MW of incremental load.**" This is the single most-specific public-record number on the executed data-center electric service agreements. The customer is not named; the context (post-IRP, large block load) strongly implies [[Altitude Capital, LLC]] / Google's West Memphis electric service agreement referenced in [[Entergy CEO Direct Testimony]]. ### The "with or without" justification structure - "Even without any of the anticipated incremental load growth, EAL will still need JPS." - "The Mid-cycle IRP confirmed the need for JPS based on a far more conservative load forecast." - "All load scenarios in the 2024 IRP (including the low growth scenario) require an in-service CCCT like JPS." Bethel's testimony layers two arguments: JPS is needed regardless of the data-center load; AND the data-center load (the "161 MW of new electric service agreements") makes JPS more critical. ### Economic-development projections - 700–800 peak construction workers - 22 permanent operations positions (over 30-year operational life) - Approximately **$18M sales-and-use tax during construction phase** - Approximately **$10M property tax during first year of operation** - "Long-term economic development prospects (which could be **orders of magnitude higher**) that JPS would support and that EAL cannot serve without a new gas efficient combined cycle gas unit" ### Public outreach - Virtual open house webpage: **https://www.entergyarkansas.com/jeffersonpowerstation** - Open house presented to public: 2025-07-09 - Invitation published 2025-07-13 in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Pine Bluff Commercial - Direct email: [email protected]; phone: 501-213-0706 ## People and orgs mentioned - [[John P. Bethel]] — author - [[Entergy Arkansas]] — employer / proponent - [[Arkansas Economic Development Commission]] (AEDC) — partner - Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce — partner - "Mrs. Fielder" — [[Kandice Fielder]] is cited for the 2024 IRP and Table 1 details - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — publication used for landowner / public notice - Pine Bluff Commercial — publication used for local notice - Implicit: [[Altitude Capital, LLC]] / [[Google LLC]] (the 161 MW likely belongs here) ## Concepts invoked - [[Strategic Investment]] under Act 373 - 2024 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), Docket 07-016-U - Mid-cycle IRP - [[Generating Arkansas Jobs Act (GAJA) rider]] - CCCT (combined-cycle combustion turbine) ## Cross-references - [[psc/docket-25-047-u-jefferson-2026-05-22/_overview|Docket 25-047-U production overview]] — context - [[Jefferson REDACTED Application]] — the Application this testimony supports - [[Entergy CEO Direct Testimony]] — the corresponding $1.7B-savings claim and Altitude Capital identification in the rate case ## Open questions / follow-ups - **Table 1 — Year-Over-Year Industrial Load Growth (2026–2030, percent)** — sealed under HSPI. The single most-important sealed exhibit on data-center load growth in the corpus. - The customer behind the 161 MW of executed electric service agreements — almost certainly named in the HSPI version but redacted in public. - The HSPI exhibits to Bethel's direct (Doc. 19, filed under PROTECTED SEAL) — not retrieved. - The Mid-cycle IRP supporting Bethel's "even without anticipated load growth" claim — referenced but not retrieved.