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AR — Power Infrastructure Updated January 2026

Arkansas

MISO/SPP Natural Gas Nuclear Solar Wind Storage Data Center PPAs Queue Bottlenecks Transmission Constraints

Overview

Arkansas sits in a power buildout zone fueled by data center demand in West Memphis and growing load across Entergy’s MISO South territory and SPP cooperative footprint. Entergy Arkansas is planning a 754 MW natural gas plant and a 600 MW solar + 350 MW battery facility for Google, while the state’s first utility-scale wind farm began serving Microsoft in 2025. Transmission upgrades are underway to support the new load, and both MISO and SPP are working through major interconnection queue backlogs.

Generation Projects

Natural Gas

Entergy Arkansas is planning the Jefferson Power Station, a 754 MW combined-cycle plant near Redfield, targeting a 2029 online date and representing a $1.6 billion investment.[1]

Nuclear

Arkansas Nuclear One operates two reactors that remain the state’s nuclear baseload anchor. Entergy notified the NRC of plans to seek subsequent license renewals, with current licenses expiring in 2034 (Unit 1) and 2038 (Unit 2).[2]

Solar

Entergy Arkansas is building the Cypress Solar project in Jefferson County, a 600 MW solar facility paired with battery storage to serve Google’s West Memphis data center.[3]

Other recent and planned solar projects include:

  • Walnut Bend Solar (Lee County): 100 MW, entered service September 2024[4]
  • West Memphis Solar: 180 MW, planned late 2024
  • Driver Solar: 250 MW, planned late 2024
  • Flat Fork Solar: 200 MW, planned 2025
  • Forgeview Solar: 200 MW, planned 2025[4]

Wind

Crossover Wind in Cross County became Arkansas’s first utility-scale wind project when it achieved commercial operations in November 2025. The 135 MW facility sells 100% of its output to Microsoft under a 20-year PPA (power purchase agreement).[5]

Transmission and Grid

Entergy Arkansas has completed or is building several transmission projects to serve new load:

  • Sandy Bayou substation (Mississippi County): 500/230 kV facility tapping the Driver–Shelby 500 kV line, costing approximately $88 million, in service summer 2024[6]
  • Wrightsville 115 kV lines (Pulaski County): two new 3.5-mile lines and substation modifications for a new customer facility, in-service target June 2027[7]

MISO’s 2023 transmission planning process (MTEP23) included 12 projects proposed by Entergy Arkansas, totaling $123 million, for reliability and generator interconnection upgrades.[8]

Battery Storage

Entergy Arkansas is building 350 MW of battery storage in Jefferson County, paired with the Cypress Solar project, to support Google’s West Memphis data center.[3]

Data Center Power Agreements

Arkansas has two major tech company PPAs on record:

  • Microsoft PPA: 20-year contract for 100% of output from the 135 MW Crossover Wind project[5]
  • Google power contract: Entergy Arkansas will serve Google’s $4 billion West Memphis data center with the 600 MW Cypress Solar + 350 MW battery project, filed with the Arkansas Public Service Commission[3]

Interconnection Queue

Arkansas faces interconnection queue pressure across both of its grid operators. As of January 2026, the state had 164 active interconnection requests totaling 36.17 GW in the combined MISO and SPP queues.[9]

SPP completed its backlog-clearing plan in September 2025 after processing 1,652 projects (340 GW) through 24 cluster studies.[10] MISO reports ongoing delays driven by supply chain, permitting, and commercial issues, with large queue volumes preventing the target one-year study timeframe.[11]

What to Watch

  • Jefferson Power Station approval: Arkansas PSC decision on Entergy’s 754 MW natural gas plant
  • Cypress Solar + storage timeline: construction and in-service dates for the Google data center resource
  • Central Arkansas load growth: additional transmission projects tied to new customer facilities, particularly in Pulaski County

Sources

[1] Entergy Arkansas. “Jefferson Power Station: Powering Arkansas today and into the next generation.” Press release, November 6, 2025. https://www.entergy.com/news/jefferson-power-station-powering-arkansas-today-and-into-the-next-generation (accessed 2026-01-08).

[2] Phil Couture (Entergy Operations, Inc.). “Intent to Pursue Subsequent License Renewal, Arkansas Nuclear One, Units 1 and 2.” Letter to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, November 19, 2025. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2532/ML25324A111.pdf (accessed 2026-01-08).

[3] Entergy Arkansas. “Entergy Arkansas powers Google’s $4B investment in the state.” Press release, October 2, 2025. https://www.entergy.com/news/entergy-arkansas-powers-googles-4b-investment-in-the-state (accessed 2026-01-08).

[4] Entergy Arkansas and Invenergy. “Entergy Arkansas and Invenergy announce start of commercial operations at Walnut Bend Solar.” Press release, September 19, 2024. https://www.entergy.com/news/entergy-arkansas-invenergy-announce-start-commercial-operations-at-walnut-bend-solar (accessed 2026-01-08).

[5] Cordelio Power. “Cordelio Power Achieves Commercial Operations at 135 MW Crossover Wind Project, the First Operating Wind Project in Arkansas.” Press release, November 18, 2025. https://cordeliopower.com/cordelio_power_achieves_commercial_operations_at_135mw_crossover_wind_project_the_first_operating_wind_project_in_arkansas/ (accessed 2026-01-08).

[6] Entergy. “Arkansas transmission projects.” Project page, March 2022. https://www.entergy.com/transmission/projects/ar (accessed 2026-01-08).

[7] Entergy Arkansas. “Supporting new Entergy Arkansas customer needs” (Wrightsville 115 kV transmission lines). Project page, n.d. https://www.entergyarkansas.com/wrightsville (accessed 2026-01-08).

[8] MISO. “MTEP23 Project Selection: Entergy Arkansas LLC / Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation.” Presentation, September 6, 2023. https://cdn.misoenergy.org/20230906%20SSPM3%20Item%2003c-1%20Arkansas%20Proposed%20Projects630069.pdf (accessed 2026-01-08).

[9] Interconnection.fyi. “Latest Active Arkansas Generation Interconnection Queue Requests with daily data updates.” Data page, accessed 2026-01-08. https://www.interconnection.fyi/?state=AR (accessed 2026-01-08).

[10] Southwest Power Pool. “Southwest Power Pool reaches milestone in acceleration of generation interconnection requests.” Press release, September 10, 2025. https://www.spp.org/news-list/southwest-power-pool-reaches-milestone-in-acceleration-of-generation-interconnection-requests/ (accessed 2026-01-08).

[11] MISO. “Generator Interconnection Queue Update” (System Planning Committee of the Board of Directors), December 10, 2024. https://cdn.misoenergy.org/20241210%20System%20Planning%20Committee%20of%20the%20BOD%20Item%2004%20Generator%20Interconnection%20Queue%20Update665714.pdf (accessed 2026-01-08).