Relatively cheap power, for now

East Baton Rouge households still pay less than the national average for electricity. Data centers and liquefied natural gas exports could change that.

Why it matters: Electricity demand is rising fast, driven in part by the enormous power needs of data centers. Advocates worry some of the cost of building that power will fall on regular Louisiana customers, who earn less than people in much of the country.

By the numbers:

• East Baton Rouge households pay about $149 a month for electricity, according to an Axios analysis of every county and parish in the country. The national average is $158.
• Nearby parishes are in the same range: West Baton Rouge at $147, Livingston at $150 and Ascension at $151.
• Louisiana’s median household income in 2024 was $60,986, far below the national median of $81,604 and lower than every Southern neighbor except Mississippi, according to Invest in Louisiana.

The context: Baton Rouge residents use a lot of electricity, mostly because summer here is less a season than a sustained attack. But rates have stayed relatively low, helped by Entergy’s reliance on cheaper natural gas.

The natural gas advantage may be weakening for two reasons:

• Demand for liquefied natural gas in Europe helped push U.S. LNG exports to a record last year, with another 20% increase projected by 2027.
• At the same time, data centers are coming online with extraordinary power demands of their own.

The Entergy example: Entergy wants the Public Service Commission to approve its purchase of a $1.8 billion natural-gas power plant, saying the company needs the capacity to meet mostly regular growth in demand.

But in a PSC filing first reported by The Advocate, consultant R. Lane Sisung, writing on behalf of PSC staff, says his analysis strongly indicates the plant is needed to serve the extraordinary power needs of Meta’s data center.

If the PSC approves the purchase, residential customers would pay at least $8 more per month, or $96 a year.

Just sayin: Meta was founded and is run by Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth nearly $200 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.

The bottom line: Louisiana’s power bills are still relatively low. That may not last. Rising LNG demand and the unresolved question of who pays for electricity built for giant data centers could push rates higher. That hits harder in Baton Rouge, where poverty exceeds the national average and middle-class households are already stretched by the cost of keeping their houses cool.