Three multibillion-dollar data centers are being built in Mississippi.
People are concerned about pollution and electric bill increases that have been seen in data center hot spots around the country.
Entergy is providing power to two of the centers, Amazon Web Services in Madison County and AVAIO in Rankin County. Haley Fisackerly, the CEO of Entergy Mississippi, sat down for an interview with Mississippi Today to address some of these concerns.
The interview was conducted Sept. 9 and has been edited for clarity and length.
Mississippi Today: The main question we’ve been getting is about electricity rates. Are people’s electricity rates going to go up because of the data centers? You’ve said they won’t, but in other states they really have. Can you explain?
Haley Fisackerly: I appreciate the question because it actually is going to have an opposite effect on our customers.
Growth is important because if you can improve your sales or your customer base, you have a greater base to spread your costs.
Our dilemma about a decade ago was that Mississippi was not growing. Our sister companies in Texas and Louisiana have seen significant growth.
READ MORE: Brandon residents want answers, guarantees about data center
We recognized that we weren’t growing, the cost of services were driving up and we needed to invest heavily to improve reliability. We especially have seen that post-COVID with supply chain challenges, inflation, and add to it now, tariffs. We had aging infrastructure, power plants that needed to be replaced, and we, the consumer, use electricity differently. So that means more investment.
When we had to make these investments, we saw our rates escalating dramatically. And we said, “We’ve got to do something about this now.” We do what we can to manage our costs, but we needed to really move that denominator.
We looked at ways that we could find transformative growth. About eight years ago, somebody said data centers. This data center idea could bring new revenue into the business that would allow us to reinvest.
We worked with the Mississippi Development Authority and the state to make the state more attractive for data centers. We talked to local counties to see who would have sites and during this time frame we started to impress Amazon Web Services. They saw a state that was really working to try to break down hurdles. Finally, in late 2022, early 2023, they threw out an opportunity, and that’s what brought AWS here. We are now able to bring in a large customer that is bringing in the volume we need.
After that announcement, other data centers started looking at places in Mississippi and across the South. Most of the data center activity had really centered around northern Virginia, Ohio, Phoenix. Areas in the South were not, from a large-scale perspective, really looked at. There is available capacity, land, and you don’t have the population constraints they’re running into in the northern Virginia area.
Entergy crews work to restore power along Hwy. 48 in Tylertown, Monday, March 17, 2025. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodaySecondly, how do I know we’re protecting customers? We’re regulated by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, and we are required to make sure that any incremental cost by a large customer like that, they are covered by that customer and provide benefits to other customers.
Take AWS and AVAIO. We knew we were going to have to build two new power plants in the early 2030 timeframe. These are expensive. Because of AWS and AVEO coming in, we’re building new power plants and they’re going to be paying a majority of the cost.
MT: Can I just jump in really quick with a clarifying question? You would have needed to build a new power plant regardless of whether a new data center was going to come in because of the aging infrastructure?
Fisackerly: It was aging. For example, the first plant we’re building is up in the Mississippi Delta.
We’re retiring a plant in Greenville that was built in the late 1950s. The new plant is a natural gas plant, too, but it uses 90% less water and is 50% more energy efficient. You can use less natural gas and get more output. It will be capable of burning hydrogen, which is a cleaner fuel, if and when hydrogen ever becomes economical, and capturing carbon. We are working on a second plant, too, and we’ll probably be eventually looking at additional ones.
In addition to that, AWS said they wanted renewables. We’re deploying 650 megawatts of renewables that will be connected to the grid, that AWS is paying the incremental cost for.
When electricity flows, it’d be no different than when I pour water on this table. It’s going to flow in the path of least resistance. We put power onto the electrical grid and it serves all customers.
If AWS and AVAIO become larger customers, they’re going to pay a larger percentage. We need to build substations, upgrade transmission lines, and they’re having to pay for those costs. But the other customers are going to benefit from it because you’re improving import capabilities and making it more robust and resilient. We’re getting a better grid at a lesser cost.
When power moves from a power plant it’s dispatched onto a transmission line then it’s moved to a substation and that voltage is downgraded through a substation to a lower voltage and put on distribution lines to serve customers. In the case of a large customer like this, they will only be transmission served. Power is going to move from the plants on the transmission lines to substations that they will own and pay for at the site. Other customers don’t have to pay for those.
MT: But data centers just use a large amount of electricity. The supply that you need then is bigger than what you would’ve needed if it was just going to be residential. Doesn’t that increase the cost?
Fisackerly: It increases the cost because you’re investing more. But because they’re using a larger percentage of it, just through that alone means they’re covering their cost.
But those plants are there to serve everybody. Say they use X percentage of that plant. They pay their fair share of that percentage. Other customers are not having to pick that up. Plus, the data centers are having to pay certain premiums above that, too, to have the power available when they need it — the premium, such as the renewables they want. So as we look at carbon capture, they’ll have to pay those incremental costs. We’ll get the benefits of the clean outputs, but they are paying those incremental costs.
MT: Data centers run 24/7. I’ve heard that they use diesel as backup, and they have a capacity on the AWS site.
Fisackerly: That’s what AWS is doing. I’m not sure what AVAIO’s plans are. But they have backup in case there’s an emergency. They’re limited on how often they can run those under environmental requirements, but yes, that’s correct.
MT: There’s been some concern in Mississippi because of what’s happening in Memphis with xAI putting up the unregulated turbines that they have. Do you have any concerns that AWS might do something similar?
Fisackerly: No, I do not. First of all, if you look where they’re building, they’re very isolated. They’re leaving a lot of woods around there on purpose, to hide and buffer it. Those backup generators will not run that often. They’re there in the rare event, a major storm.
Keep in mind they’re not going to be served by the distribution system. The transmission system serves them. We rarely see disruptions on the transmission system because they’re larger wires with larger rights of way, whereas distribution lines are smaller wires running down streets and through neighborhoods. So that lessens a data center’s exposure, too.
We’re a part of a market called the midContinent Independent System Operator. It’s a regional transmission organization where utilities dispatch all their power into that pool. If you ever had a situation like during the summer that transmission lines were lost, or a power plant went down, then we have certain reserve margins. If we got to a capacity shortfall, the data centers would be curtailed and they would probably run their backup generators. But those are usually very short-term periods.
MT: Going to go back to the rates: I saw a video on social media over the weekend where someone said they had talked with (Public Service) Commissioner Stamps, and that he said rates were likely going to go up.
Fisackerly: First of all, rates were already going up. The investments were going up. Inflation is driving all of our materials up. Natural gas costs have been higher. Now those are dollar-for-dollar patch throughs that we don’t make profits off of. But that trajectory we were showing is being lowered. So there’s still going to be rates going up. Everybody’s rates are going up.
We have a large buyer who’s going to help contribute toward the cost of the grid that benefits all customers. We were hoping to bring in a big, transformative customer that’s going to help reduce cost. Rates are not going to be as high as they otherwise would’ve been. I can’t promise you they won’t go up. But the trajectory has drastically changed.
In the legislation that approved the AWS deal, there are protections that mean AWS is required to pay the incremental cost to serve and provide benefits to customers. When we started talking to AWS the governor said, “This cannot harm other customers.”
Everybody was like, we’ve got to do this in a way that it benefits customers. And that’s what we did. We also learned from the other states that went before us.
MT: Yes, they’ve had lots of issues.
Fisackerly: And no doubt that’s happened in other states. But the regulatory process here in Mississippi, especially in our experience with the Mississippi Public Service Commission, they’ve always been supportive of economic development, but they have also had strict requirements. You could go to other states where their policies may be different.
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