Mississippi Commercial Electricity: Entergy MS and TVA Dynamics
Mississippi is a fully regulated monopoly split between two grids. Southern and central businesses are served by Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power (MPSC-regulated). Northern Mississippi operates under the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), exempt from state oversight. In 2026, cost management requires hyper-local tariff engineering—commodity trading is legally prohibited.
Executive Impact
- →The TVA Sovereign Exclusion: Because the TVA is a federally owned corporation, its rate structures, capital expenditures, and fuel surcharges are largely exempt from MPSC oversight. Northern Mississippi manufacturers must adapt to TVA-specific grid initiatives, which are currently focused on massive electrification load and replacing aging nuclear/coal assets.
- →Entergy & Mississippi Power Fuel Adjustments: The MPSC-regulated IOUs rely heavily on natural gas generation. The MPSC allows these utilities to utilize Fuel Adjustment Clauses (FAC), meaning whenever Henry Hub natural gas spikes (often due to winter storms), the entirety of that volatile commodity cost is passed directly onto the commercial ratepayer's bill with zero markup, but also zero margin for negotiation.
- →Economic Development Reality: The state relies extremely heavily on energy-intensive automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, and aerospace corridors. To keep the state competitive globally, utilities frequently execute secret, highly subsidized "Economic Development" tariffs for massive anchor tenants, shifting the broader grid system costs onto medium-sized commercial ratepayers.
Tariff Engineering in a Closed Market
Without the ability to run competitive supply RFPs across a dozen different retail energy providers, Mississippi facility managers must focus exclusively on tariff optimization and demand reduction.
- Tariff Auditing and Migration: Regulated monopolies manage dozens of different commercial rate classes (e.g., General Service, Large Power, High Voltage/Primary Metering). Utilities are not legally obligated to place your facility on the absolute cheapest rate. Conducting a deeply analytical tariff audit often reveals that changing a single operational shift can qualify a plant for a completely different rate schedule, slashing billing by 5-15% annually.
- Interruptible Load Programs: Entergy MS and the TVA offer lucrative financial credits to major industrial users willing to briefly shut down operations during severe grid emergencies (such as extreme summer heat waves or winter freezes). A sprawling automotive manufacturer that agrees to drop 10 Megawatts of load on 30 minutes' notice receives a massive, permanent reduction in their monthly demand charges, even if an event is never called.
- Power Factor Correction: Mississippi utilities heavily penalize poor "power factor"—the difference between the voltage supplied and the efficient use of that electricity by heavy equipment. Installing capacitor banks at the facility level instantly eliminates these entirely preventable, mathematically calculated utility penalties.
The Push for Solar Integration
While Mississippi has historically lagged behind deregulated neighbors in solar deployment, 2026 is seeing massive utility-scale fields energized by both Entergy and Mississippi Power. However, unlike unbundled markets, commercial businesses cannot execute third-party Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) easily. Instead, corporate entities seeking ESG compliance must subscribe to specialized "Green Tariffs" authorized by the MPSC, guaranteeing that a specific percentage of their utility-provided electricity originates from these new in-state solar arrays.