Entergy is seeking approval from St. Charles Parish leaders to build a generator that would more than double energy production at the Little Gypsy power plant in Montz.
Entergy representatives said that the project is estimated to have an economic impact of more than $1 billion, would employ 20 full-time workers and bring in between 500 and 800 construction workers at its peak.
The Planning and Zoning board, along with the St. Charles Parish Council, must approve the project because the proposed facility would be built approximately 1,500 feet from homes on Evangeline Road in Montz. Current parish ordinance requires a buffer of 2,000 feet, or approval by the Planning and Zoning board and council.
The new generator is part of a request from the Louisiana Public Service Commission to provide for growing energy needs in the River Parishes that one Entergy official referred to as “the industrial renaissance.”
Currently, excess demand for the River Parishes has to be pulled through the grid from power sources on the north shore.
Representatives from Entergy touted the high-efficiency of the proposed generator, which would capture heat from the exhaust of the gas burned to generate energy, use that to boil steam, which would rotate a turbine and generate more electricity. The proposed generator would also emit two-thirds of the carbon dioxide as the current gas-burning generator at Little Gypsy.
The plant was last in the news after a 2007 plan to convert it from natural gas to petroleum coke and coal was reversed by the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The reversal of that decision cost Entergy customers a combined total of $200 million.
The current generator operates at approximately 600 megawatts.
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