Entergy argues data centers are net positive for Mississippi electric customers
By Jeremy Vanderloo | Originally published by Mississippi Today
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In May 2025, we projected that data centers would drive residential electricity rates in Entergy Mississippi’s service territory 16% lower in 2030 than they would have been without data center growth. We are well on track to achieve that result.
This summer, the Mississippi Public Service Commission approved a rate plan that keeps Entergy Mississippi’s rates well below the national average and prevented what otherwise would have been a $4.87 per month increase per 1,000 kilowatt hours in July, compared to June rates. New revenues from Mississippi data centers, like Amazon’s, are a primary reason why rates didn’t go up. The Public Service Commission also approved a 41-cent rate decrease per 1,000 kilowatt hours that appeared on customer bills in October. Data center revenues also produced this decrease.
How did these benefits start coming to customers so quickly? It is because Mississippi took the right approach.
In 2024, the Mississippi Legislature came together in a special session and passed Senate Bill 2001 with near-unanimous support. Gov. Tate Reeves signed it, positioning the state to compete for large-scale technology investment. What made it work was the question legislators asked from the start: How do we protect existing utility customers while attracting investment?
The answer was in the details. The contracts require data centers to pay their fair share, plus provide additional benefits for all customers. At Entergy Mississippi, each data center customer pays a minimum charge that covers the costs to serve it, and every service agreement is individually priced to reflect actual infrastructure needs, whether that’s $100 million or several billion dollars.
The results have come quickly. In two years, Amazon has announced four separate data center campuses and $25 billion in total Mississippi investment. Across most of Entergy’s service territory – including Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana where big tech companies are locating – data center agreements are projected to deliver $7 billion in savings to 2.3 million customers over 20 years thanks to our Fair Share Plus pledge.
Public service commissioners in all three states have validated those numbers. In Mississippi specifically, new data center revenues are funding $300 million in grid reliability investments through the Superpower Mississippi plan, with no additional cost to existing customers for those upgrades.
This growth is producing grid reliability improvements, construction jobs and long-term tax revenue. At the same time, electric rates will be lower than they otherwise would have been.
Other states are still wrestling with how to bring data centers and their economic benefits without creating unintended consequences that have a negative impact on residents. Some have designed tariffs so restrictive they’ve driven data center customers away. Others haven’t designed adequate protections at all.
Mississippi found a path that welcomes data center benefits for Mississippians and protects existing customers. This path was created within the existing regulatory framework, in two years, with validated results, and has become the template for how all future Entergy contracts with data centers will be structured.
Mississippi’s data center story is different. That $5 monthly benefit is only the beginning of how data centers will help keep Entergy Mississippi’s rates low and protect customers.
Mississippi got this right. The numbers are confirming it.
Jeremy Vanderloo serves as Entergy Mississippi’s vice president of business operations and strategy, leading the company’s overall strategy to drive growth and enhance operations. Prior to his current position, he led Entergy Mississippi’s regulatory affairs and interactions with the Mississippi Public Service Commission. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Marine Corp veteran, Vanderloo also earned a Juris Doctor and MBA from Mississippi College and practiced electric utility regulatory and employee benefits law before joining Entergy.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
