Google Is Funding $600 Million of Entergy Arkansas Substation and Line Work

Entergy Arkansas said on Oct. 19 that Google will pay for roughly $600 million in new grid infrastructure and a power purchase agreement tied to its data center campus in West Memphis. The package expands the Galet substation, a 500/230 kV station near the site, and adds two new 230 kV transmission lines built to serve the campus. Entergy Arkansas will file the expansion with the Arkansas Public Service Commission, and the new resources are expected in service in 2028 pending approval.

The generation attached to the deal is larger than the wires. The agreement adds a 440-megawatt alternating-current solar purchase from the Big Island facility under construction in Mississippi County, a 1,000-megawatt-hour battery system at Driver Solar near Osceola, and a 400-megawatt-hour battery system near Hot Springs. Both battery systems are scheduled for 2028. Combined with the Cypress Solar and Battery project in Jefferson County from the first phase of the partnership, the two agreements account for more than 1,000 megawatts of solar and 2,800 megawatt-hours of storage. Entergy Arkansas put the customer benefit at $2.1 billion in net contributions toward fixed costs shared by its 738,000 customers, including at least $500 million in new savings over 20 years beginning in 2028.

The scope is high-voltage utility work rather than building distribution. Expanding a 500/230 kV substation means foundations and structural steel, bus and disconnect assembly, breakers and instrument transformers, a ground grid, control-house construction, and protection and relay wiring, followed by functional testing and commissioning before the station is energized. Two new 230 kV lines into a single customer campus add dead-end structures, line terminations, and the switching and metering positions that go with them. The solar and battery sites carry separate scope: direct-current collection, inverters, medium-voltage collection circuits, and the step-up equipment that ties each site to the transmission system.

The schedule spreads that work across several years and several counties. The Galet substation is slated for initial service this year, while the substation expansion and both battery systems target 2028. The campus sits on about 1,178 acres in Crittenden County and is planned for five buildings, with initial grid service expected in February 2027 and full capacity by October 2029. The generation and storage sites sit in Mississippi County, Jefferson County, and near Hot Springs, which puts the electrical work in four parts of the state rather than one metro.

For hiring, that mix favors electricians with substation and transmission experience over those whose work has been inside finished buildings: medium- and high-voltage terminations, relay and control wiring, grounding and bonding, and NFPA 70E qualification for the energized stations they will work next to. Because Google is paying under a separate contract and the new resources are not recovered through the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act Rider, the scope does not depend on a general rate case. Commission approval is the remaining gate.

One campus has now committed Arkansas to substation, transmission, solar, and storage construction running through 2029.