Hut 8 facility expected to generate $90 million annually for local government

WEST FELICIANA PARISH, La. (WAFB) - Construction crews are breaking ground on the Hut 8 River Bend data center site that will nearly triple West Feliciana Parish’s tax revenue when it becomes operational in 2027. The site will power Anthropic’s AI models in partnership with Fluidstack.

The facility, located just off Highway 61 on LA 964, will generate an additional $90 million annually for the parish, which currently collects $41 million in tax revenue, according to Parish President Kenny Havard.

“We are going to split that a third, a third, a third between the taxing authorities, which would be the school, the sheriff, and the parish,” Havard said.

Entergy partnership powers development

Havard said he waited for the right company to meet the parish’s needs rather than accommodating any interested developer. He found that match with Hut 8, an energy infrastructure company working with Entergy to provide 330 megawatts of power to the site.

Hut 8 agreed to pay for the generators and substation needed to power the River Bend site. However, the state is not requiring the same arrangement for the 7 to 15 additional data centers it is considering for the future.

“This can be a win, win, win for Louisiana,” Havard said. “Win for locals and win for these companies if we can manage to pull it all together,” Havard said.

Concerns about future energy costs

Havard expressed concern about potential rising energy prices as more data centers develop across the state. He said rate payers should not see increased costs from this project because the companies are paying for the substation and no additional power generation is required.

“We give away a lot of tax dollars in the state to get these companies here -- and it’s a benefit to get them here, but if our tax system is so broken that we have to come up with gimmicks and schemes to get them to come here, then let’s fix our tax policy so that we’re playing on the same field,” Havard said.

The Public Service Commission deferred a directive proposed by Commissioner Davante Lewis Dec. 17 that would have done just that. The directive would have initiated a process to define how these companies connect to the grid, pay for infrastructure, and share costs.

Instead, the Commission approved a proposal from Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan, shortcutting the review and regulatory process of ‘large-load cases’. His “lightning amendment” bypasses regulation that keeps utilities like Entergy accountable to the least-cost options in the marketplace.

After the West Feliciana site becomes operational, Hut 8 says it is looking to expand across Louisiana.

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