Southeast Texas is growing at an extraordinary pace — and powering it is both our mission and our challenge. This post, adapted from my keynote presentation at INFOCUS 2025, shares how Entergy Texas is navigating one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. — from industrial development along the Gulf Coast to booming residential communities in Montgomery County, where INFOCUS 2025 took place.
Entergy Texas serves 27 counties across this vibrant region. That includes major population centers like The Woodlands, Conroe, and Huntsville, and critical industrial hubs like Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Orange. Together, we serve more than half a million customers, from new homeowners to some of the largest manufacturing and petrochemical operations in North America.
Meeting the challenge of exponential demand
This wave of growth is exciting, but it’s also a serious challenge. When we look at our projected capacity needs in Southeast Texas over the next four years, we’re staring at a 40% increase. We all know you can’t build a power plant in four years — especially not when you factor in permitting, regulatory review, and today’s supply chain realities. That’s why we didn’t wait. A couple of years ago, we kicked off a comprehensive initiative we call our STEP Ahead plan.
STEP Ahead is short for the Southeast Texas Energy Plan, but it also reflects a simple truth: to support this region’s growth, electric utilities like ours must stay a step ahead. That means investing in generation and transmission before the need becomes a crisis. It means maintaining affordable rates for families and businesses. It also means preparing for the extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent across our state.
Building the right kind of capacity
The STEP Ahead plan includes billions in new generation resources, including two dispatchable natural gas plants — Legend Power Station and Lone Star Power Station.
Our industrial customers operate 24/7 and rely on consistent, reliable power. That’s why intermittent renewables alone aren’t enough. Projects like Entergy Texas’ Orange County Advanced Power Station, our largest combined cycle facility that’s expected to come online in summer 2025, are critical. So is our Montgomery County Power Station, which came online six months ahead of schedule in January 2021 — just in time for Winter Storm Uri.
Transmission, resilience, and reliability
New generation only goes so far without robust transmission to carry it. We’re doubling down on that front, too. The SETEX transmission line — a 131-to-160-mile, 500-kV project stretching from Montgomery County to the Louisiana border — is one of several major infrastructure investments underway. In the next 18 months, we expect to file and advance the same number of transmission projects we did in the last decade.
And because Southeast Texas knows a thing or two about hurricanes, freezes, and wildfires, we’ve also launched a multi-year resilience program. Approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas earlier this year, our Texas Future Ready Resiliency Plan focuses on hardening our infrastructure across transmission, distribution, and generation to help us rebound quickly and restore service — no matter what nature throws our way.
Partners in powering progress
None of this happens without strong partners. That includes the communities we serve, our regulators, our contractors — and our technology providers like PCI. We use a variety of PCI’s tools to run our operations, from ISO market integration to day-to-day scheduling. Strong partnerships like these make it possible for us to stay a step ahead — not just in planning, but in delivering the power our region depends on for everyday life.
Keeping our mission in focus
At the end of the day, all this growth, all this investment — it’s about people. The folks who flip the switch and expect the lights to come on. The families counting on affordable energy to power their homes. The businesses — big and small — helping to drive Southeast Texas’s economy.
Our mission at Entergy Texas is to serve them with safe, reliable, and affordable power. We’re proud of the role we play in powering this extraordinary moment in Southeast Texas, and we’re proud to do it alongside partners who share our commitment to building a stronger future — together.
Curious how Entergy Texas is powering one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S.? Learn more about our generation and transmission projects at entergytexasstepahead.com.
This blog post was adapted from a keynote presentation delivered at INFOCUS 2025, PCI’s annual user conference.
