A Mississippi company plans to move forward in building a private power plant and an artificial intelligence industrial campus.
State utility regulators, though, declined to make a ruling on the project, calling the developer’s request for an opinion “premature” and “hypothetical.”
The state’s two largest power companies are protesting the effort, arguing the project would classify it as a public utility.
“We’re celebrating the ruling of the Public Service Commission,” said Gabriel Prado, CEO & president of PraCon Global Investment Group, the developer of the project and a slew of others throughout the Jackson metro area, including Topgolf in Ridgeland and a luxury apartment complex in Fondren.
While his initial filing to the PSC said the data center campus would be in Ridgeland, Prado has since said the project will be in the Jackson metro area and declined to say exactly where the project will be. The Jackson metro area, which includes Ridgeland, is in Entergy Mississippi’s service territory, meaning the company has exclusive rights to sell power there.
In March, Prado AI, an affiliate of PraCon Global Investment, asked for a PSC opinion on whether it would be considered and regulated as a public utility if it generated and supplied power to its tenants at a potential data center and semiconductor manufacturing campus. It said in its initial filing that electricity would be included in the lease and not metered.
On Friday, the PSC, which regulates public utility providers in the state, declined to issue an opinion saying that it did not have enough information. Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps told Mississippi Today that Prado didn’t answer “basic” questions, such as how many tenants the power would serve.
“The limited facts presented by Prado AI present multiple questions of fact such that [a change in] any variable could result in a different opinion,” the report said.
When asked why he didn’t provide more detail to the PSC, Prado said making that information available to the utility companies would take away the project’s competitive advantage.
Prado called the decision “the best outcome in our legal strategy.”
Prado AI is still working on securing all the funding it would need for a project of this size. Amazon’s data centers in Mississippi start at $1 billion in investment, and Gabriel Prado says his long term goal is to bring in over $25 billion. Any potential project would still need to go through state and local permitting.
In Mississippi, companies are generally allowed to generate power for their own use. The sticking point for utility companies is that Prado AI would be generating and providing power to its tenants. Entergy and Mississippi Power, the state’s two largest power providers, argue this arrangement would make Prado AI a public utility, subjecting it to the same PSC rules and regulations as them.
In a brief to the PSC, Mississippi Power wrote that the request “could intentionally or unintentionally upset this delicate regulatory balance” and warned that the request could cause “significant and sweeping impacts that are truly difficult to overestimate.”
Prado AI disagrees and has cited an exemption which allows landlords to supply electricity to tenants. But the utility companies say the exemption only applies to transmitting electricity, not generating it.
Even if Prado AI didn’t qualify as a public utility, the power companies argue Prado would need a “certificate of public convenience and necessity,” or CPCN, from the PSC in order to generate power.
“An entity seeking to construct a generator, even without becoming a public utility, must still obtain a CPCN from the (PSC) first, giving the (PSC) the opportunity to determine whether the construction of the generator is in the public interest,” Entergy wrote in an April 13 filing.
The company added, in a statement to Mississippi Today on Monday, that while it “supports customers’ right to generate their own power in compliance with state laws,” Entergy wants to guarantee the facility won’t affect its ratepayers.
“We want to ensure if this large industrial project asks to connect to the electric grid in the future, it will cover all related interconnection costs so those costs aren’t passed on to Entergy’s residential, small business and other customers,” Entergy said in the statement.
In the Jackson metro area, officials are trying to balance economic development with pushback from residents over environmental impacts. Jackson officials are grappling with potential zoning changes after being recently approached by a data center developer, while the City Council is considering a six-month moratorium on any data center construction in the city.
Prado said that while he’s opposed to a moratorium in Jackson, he thinks it’s important for there to be public debate.
“When we go into our site and then need to speak to the public, I will be there,” Prado said.
In April, Ridgeland officials passed an ordinance creating a 500-foot buffer between data centers and residents, and also ensuring such facilities plan for their utility needs ahead of time, including electricity, water and sewer.
Hence then, the article about mississippi developer plans to move forward with data center plans even as state declines to give ruling was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Mississippi developer plans to move forward with data center plans, even as state declines to give ruling )
Also on site :
- From GE’s hot seat to Substack: Jeff Immelt reflects on a new chapter and why now is the time to get candid
- Karyopharm to Host Investor Conference Call Featuring Expert Perspectives on the Phase 3 SENTRY Trial in Myelofibrosis Following 2026 ASCO Presentation
- Six Flags Is Building Another Record-Breaking Coaster—This Time With a Wild Family Twist