# Entergy CEO Direct Testimony The Direct Testimony of [[Laura R. Landreaux]], President and CEO of [[Entergy Arkansas]] (Doc. 48, filed 2026-02-27), the lead witness in the base rate case [[psc/docket-26-001-u-2026-05-22/_overview|Docket 26-001-U]]. It is a 32-page overview of the company, the rate request, and the seventeen witnesses supporting it. For this investigation its significance is one passage: it is the **first corpus document in which a regulatory filing names both the Google and AVAIO data centers and states a dollar figure for their effect on other ratepayers** — and it surfaces a previously unknown entity, [[Altitude Capital, LLC]]. ## What's inside `26-001-U_48_1.pdf` — 32 pages: Landreaux's narrative testimony (pp. 3–23); a Certificate of Service (p. 24); and an Appendix testimony summary (pp. 25–32). Landreaux has been President and CEO of Entergy Arkansas since July 1, 2018 (p. 4). ## The data-center passage Describing Entergy Arkansas's economic-development work, Landreaux testifies: > "An example of EAL's support of economic development is its partnership with the State to secure the Google data center site located in West Memphis, Arkansas and the Avaio data center site in Pulaski County, Arkansas. These projects provide more than $1.7 billion in savings for EAL customers. Further, under the oversight of the APSC, EAL was able to develop an electric service agreement with Google's subsidiary, Altitude Capital, LLC, that not only offered reasonable rates to the customer but also provides benefits to all of EAL's customers through contributions to fixed costs that EAL's current customers otherwise would bear." (pp. 11–12) The Appendix restates it, naming the projects as "the Google and Avaio datacenters in West Memphis and Pulaski County" (p. 28). Several things in this passage matter to the investigation: - It corroborates, from the utility's side, that the **AVAIO project ("Project Leo") site is in Pulaski County** and the **Google project is at West Memphis** — the two locations the FOIA record had separately surfaced. - It names **[[Altitude Capital, LLC]] as "Google's subsidiary"** and the counterparty to an "electric service agreement" for the West Memphis project — a contracting entity not previously in the corpus. - It makes a specific, checkable claim — **"more than $1.7 billion in savings for EAL customers"** — and asserts the data centers make "contributions to fixed costs that EAL's current customers otherwise would bear." This is the utility's framing: that large new customers *reduce*, not raise, other customers' bills. The testimony states the claim but does not, in this document, show the calculation behind it. The electric service agreement itself is not in this filing. Klucher's [[Class Cost of Service Study]] confirms that customers on [[Special rate contract|special rate contracts]] are excluded from the base rate case's cost-of-service study, so the terms underlying the $1.7 billion figure are not part of the public record retrieved here. ## The rate request Landreaux frames the case as statutorily required: under Ark. Code Ann. § 23-4-1208(b)(1)(B), after ten years of formula-rate regulation, Entergy Arkansas had to file by February 27, 2026 (p. 12). The company requests: - an **overall rate increase of 1.92%** — a **$44.6 million** increase on its as-filed cost of service (pp. 12–13); - a 9.9% return on equity and a roughly 52% debt / 48% equity capital structure (p. 13); - "a bill increase of less than one percent for residential customers" (p. 12). Landreaux ties the timing to the new rider: the rate change "is falling in close proximity to the implementation of EAL's Generating Arkansas Jobs Act Rider ('GAJA Rider')," and "On a combined basis, EAL's first GAJA Rider and this case are expected to have an effect around that of a typical formula rate plan filing for EAL's residential customers" (p. 12) — see [[GAJA Rider 2026 Annual Update]]. ## Load growth, named only generally The testimony attributes the case to "significant capital expansion to address unprecedented load growth" (p. 7). The closest it comes to a cause is the witness summary for Kristin Dalrymple: "incremental load growth has accelerated over the past few years to accommodate shifting industry profiles in Arkansas" (p. 20). Landreaux's testimony does not, in its own words, attribute the load growth to data centers. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Laura R. Landreaux]] — President and CEO, Entergy Arkansas; the witness. - [[Entergy Arkansas]] — the applicant utility (~735,000 customers, 63 of 75 counties, ~5,800 MW). - [[Arkansas Public Service Commission]] — the regulator. - [[Altitude Capital, LLC]] — named as "Google's subsidiary," counterparty to the West Memphis electric service agreement. - [[Google LLC]] — the West Memphis data center. - [[J. David Palmer]] — signed the Certificate of Service. - Avaio / AVAIO Digital — the Pulaski County data-center developer ("Project Leo"). (Plain-text mention.) ## Concepts invoked - [[Special rate contract]] — the likely form of the Google / Altitude Capital electric service agreement. - [[Generating Arkansas Jobs Act (GAJA) rider]] — the near-simultaneous rate driver Landreaux references. ## Events documented - [[2026-02 Entergy Arkansas Files Its Base Rate Case]] — this testimony was filed with the application. ## Cross-references - [[Class Cost of Service Study]] — the same docket's cost-of-service filing; confirms special-contract customers are excluded from the public cost-of-service study. - The $1.7 billion savings claim is the utility's answer to the investigation's central question; the [[psc/docket-26-001-u-2026-05-22/_overview|production overview]] sets it against what the GAJA rider socializes onto all ratepayers. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The **Google / Altitude Capital electric service agreement** — its rates and its "contributions to fixed costs" — is the document that would let the $1.7 billion claim be tested. It was developed "under the oversight of the APSC," so an APSC special-contract docket (e.g., 23-025-P) or a FOIA to APSC may reach it. - **[[Altitude Capital, LLC]]** — confirm its corporate relationship to Google and whether it is the owner of record or service customer for the West Memphis site (the Crittenden County records show [[GROOT LLC]] as owner of record). - Whether the "$1.7 billion in savings" is a net-present-value figure, over what term, and how it is derived — not shown in this filing.