By Will Hardy
This column appeared in The Advocate on March 14, 2025. Will Hardy is the director of Conservatives for Clean Energy Louisiana.
The first thing to know about the electric grid is that electrons are agnostic about who pays for the electric superhighway that connects generators with substations and ultimately customers. Electrons follow the laws of physics.
The second thing to know about the electric grid is that customers very much care about who pays for that electric superhighway. Traditionally captive customers, often referred to as ratepayers in regulatory parlance, get stuck with the bill when big utilities make investments in the grid.
Recently, however, the Louisiana Public Service Commission approved a multibillion-dollar grid project — Southern Spirit — that suggests a different model for financing construction: one where the developer bears the risk and costs of building the project.
At the end of 2024, the commission reached a settlement to approve the Southern Spirit Transmission Project, a near 320-mile ±525 KV, 3,000 MW high voltage direct current transmission line connecting Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. and southeastern transmission grids. Conservatively speaking, 3,000 megawatts of transmission capacity provide a pathway to serve approximately 600,000 homes.
The agreement follows a model that will increase grid reliability and access to affordable renewable energy by using private investment, rather than committing ratepayer dollars to the grid project. This project will provide benefits to multiple regions across the Southeast.
The project is designed to enhance grid resiliency during severe weather and extreme power usage events while also adding to electric diversification to help drive down rates. It is geared to address growing power demand by supplying reliable power to the ERCOT and southeastern grids.
Across Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, the project boasts a private investment of more than $2.6 billion by Pattern Energy. For Louisiana, the economic impacts cannot be ignored. In every parish the transmission line passes through — including DeSoto, Red River, Bienville, Jackson, Ouachita, Richland, Franklin and East Carroll parishes, Southern Spirit will bring a range of direct and indirect economic boosts to these communities.
Once completed, the transmission line will support over 250 permanent jobs in the state, while also supplying over 2,000 construction jobs during its two-year construction. In the first 40 years of operations, the project is estimated to bring in local and state property tax revenue of over $349 million, while also adding many opportunities for local businesses. Louisiana stands to gain greatly from this project: The parish corridor needed for its function ensures that our state will not be left out of its loop of large-scale benefits.
The Southern Spirit project points to a larger storyline — one distinguished by conservative, free market solutions to increase grid reliability and access to affordable, clean energy. Conservatives for Clean Energy Louisiana is proud to see conservatives working hard to develop and support private sector solutions to our energy challenges. We commend the Louisiana Public Service Commission for its approval of the Southern Spirit project.
After all, while the electrons may be agnostic about costs, the customers paying for those electrons and the grid that delivers them are not. Opportunities like Southern Spirit abound. We need only buy-in from the right minds, companies and developers to make economic energy solutions work across our nation.