Entergy Mississippi announces largest grid upgrade in history

Entergy Mississippi announced plans Wednesday afternoon to invest $300 million into upgrading its power grid over the next five years.

Speaking on a stage outside the company’s facility near Lake Hico in Jackson, Entergy President and CEO Haley Fisackerly explained that the investment, dubbed Superpower Mississippi, would mark a 50% increase in its usual power grid spending. The goal, he said, is to reduce outages by half over the next five years by installing stronger poles, increasing maintenance of rights-of-way, as well as installing smart devices and real-time monitoring systems.

The spending still needs Mississippi Public Service Commission approval, but two of the three PSC commissioners were on site for the announcement. Fisackerly, though, said the investment would have no impact on customers’ bills because of revenue increases coming new business from Amazon and other industries.

The CEO echoed past statements that new industries, including energy-intensive data centers, would not lead to rate increases for residential customers. Earlier this month, Fisackerly told Mississippi Today that two new data centers coming into its service area — one in Madison County owned by Amazon and another in Rankin County owned by AVAIO — would provide enough revenue to the utility that rates would actually go up less than they would have otherwise.

Fisackerly declined to say how much Entergy’s revenue had increased from its new industrial customers.

“The fact that we can pay for an additional $300 million effort without increasing rates gives you an idea about the magnitude of that,” he said. “Think of it this way: We have a cost of business, and when you bring a larger user of electricity, we can spread that cost over a greater base. So they help reduce the cost to the other customers.”

De’Keither Stamps and Wayne Carr — the Central and Southern District PSC commissioners, respectively, — spoke at Wednesday’s announcement in support of the project.

“It’s a step forward in getting to where we want to go,” Stamps said, emphasizing the importance of keeping rates affordable in areas with high poverty.

Entergy is the state’s largest utility company, serving about 459,000 customers in 45 counties.

At the PSC’s September docket meeting, Stamps called for an investigation into the company after hearing complaints from Entergy customers over power outages.

“We’re not going to stop anything until the reality of the citizens changes,” Stamps said. “They must not have to live in fear when the rain picks up, and they shouldn’t have to live in fear that their water’s going to go out because the water in rural Hinds County (comes from) ground pumps.”

Fisackerly said the company continues to hold town halls to hear customers’ complaints.

According to an Entergy press release, the number of outages caused by fallen trees has spiked in 2025 because of dead vegetation after the 2023 drought, as well as recent storms and tornados. The release clarified that many of those trees are outside the areas the company can trim.

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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.