If you can’t bring the power, you might as well take your ball and go home.
That’s the picture in today’s high-stakes competition for major digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing projects. JLL reports that in primary data center markets, the wait time to connect to the grid exceeds four years.
That means places such as Mississippi that didn’t used to be considered primary are rapidly advancing to that status: Witness the multi-billion-dollar projects from Amazon Web Services, xAI and others in the state over the past few years. Forward-thinking planning for energy-intensive industries, capacity for large industrial users and a focus on grid reliability have stood the state in good stead.
You don’t get those projects without getting after it with power generation and transmission investments, paired with high-voltage economic development work from Mississippi utilities such as natural gas provider Atmos Energy, Entergy Mississippi, Mississippi Power (MPC, part of Southern Company), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s electric cooperatives.
A Heat Recovery Steam Generator module is installed in May 2026 at Entergy’s Delta Blues Advanced Power Station in Greenville, Mississippi, part of the company’s series of Superpower Mississippi power generation plant investments.
Photo courtesy of Entergy Mississippi
Here’s a rundown on the latest some of these organizations are doing to ensure Mississippi is ready to play ball:
Entergy Mississippi
In response to a Site Selection magazine survey question in summer 2025 about dealing with the high load demand, Entergy Corp. Senior Manager of Marketing Shantel Johnson, in noting Entergy’s leadership in these areas across multiple states, wrote, “The electric utility industry stands at the intersection of tremendous growth opportunity over the next 5-10 years. Access to capital to advance the infrastructure required to sustain this growth is of paramount importance. Creative partnerships with prospective customers are key. Additionally, alignment with regulators, such as the Mississippi Public Service Commission, and constructive regulation is necessary.
“Entergy’s partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Mississippi is a prime example of the company’s collaborative approach,” the statement continued. “Over the course of six years, Entergy Mississippi worked closely with AWS to ensure a smooth and efficient transition for the company’s $10 billion investment in the state, which includes two new data center campuses.”
In September 2025, Entergy Mississippi announced Superpower Mississippi, calling it “the largest, most comprehensive grid upgrade in the company’s history,” projected to save customers millions in costs that otherwise would be included in future bills. “Although Entergy Mississippi makes power reliability investments every year that are already included in customer bills, we will be asking the Mississippi Public Service Commission for approval to increase total spending on grid improvements by 50%, or $300 million, at no cost to Mississippi customers,” the utility announced. “This spending increase to strengthen the power grid is possible because of new revenues provided by Amazon and other large industrial customers’ investments in Mississippi, and it will help us target a significant goal for the first time — to cut power outages for Entergy Mississippi customers in half within five years. With $600 million in grid improvement investments already included in current and future plans, these new investments will bring the total improvement project to almost $1 billion toward a stronger grid.”
Entergy has stated that “expediting the construction of this and other generation units at the time of new, large industrial technology customers’ investments in the grid will reduce forecasted bill increases by 16% through 2030.” In March 2026, Entergy announced that customers in Mississippi will save more than $2 billion on power bills due to data center projects in its territory.
Nuclear will be part of the future. After visiting the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station operated by Entergy Mississippi in Port Gibson, Mississippi Public Service Commission Commissioner De’Keither Stamps wrote in the PSC’s March 2026 newsletter, “Nuclear energy remains one of the most reliable and clean sources of power available to our state. The scale and complexity of this facility serve as a powerful example of American innovation and the important role nuclear energy will continue to play in Mississippi’s energy future.”
“We know that Pascagoula and Jackson County are flourishing and experiencing great growth and economic development.”
— Stephen Schruff, General Manager, Mississippi Power Transmission
Tennessee Valley Authority
In spring 2025 TVA announced that it had invested more than $22 billion over the previous decade, part of what helped meet an all-time record high peak demand of 34,577 MW in January 2024. The agency expects to invest more than $16 billion in the coming years to build generation and update power and transmission systems. “TVA’s current planning assumption includes building about 5,500 megawatts of new firm, dispatchable generation by 2029, pending required approvals and completion of applicable legal reviews and processes,” TVA stated. “Through our $1.5 billion Energy Efficiency and Demand Response program, TVA aims to offset about 30% of future load growth over the next decade, which will help lower power bills for customers.”
Specific Mississippi investments include the 160-MW Magnolia Solar site on a 1,466-acre tract in Monroe County and a 500-MW combustion turbine power generation facility at TVA’s New Caledonia site in Steens, around 10 miles northeast of Columbus in busy Lowndes County.
All of that buildup backs up the stellar efforts of TVA Economic Development’s multi-state team. Among recent project wins is Spartan Composites, a maker of advanced composite matting used in the infrastructure, oil and gas, defense and utility sectors, which in February 2026 announced it would invest $49 million and create 45 jobs as a new location in Saltillo in Lee County. The Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for road improvements and also through the Mississippi Flexible Tax Incentive, or MFLEX, program. Other recent projects TVA Economic Development has supported include Toyota’s plans to invest $125 million in the company’s Blue Springs, Mississippi facility; Jabil Circuit’s new $70 million, 24-job facility coming to Marshall County, which also enjoyed the support of Northcentral Electric Cooperative; and GE Aerospace’s 100-job, $11 million expansion in Batesville, also supported by Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association and the Panola Partnership.
Mississippi Power Company
Mississippi Power serves more than 192,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties.
Brian Useforge, director of strategic growth for Mississippi Power, says, “Due to our available generating capacity, large load industrial and data center project inquiries have significantly increased across our service territory. To manage this activity and ensure rapid responses to inquiries, our Economic Development team took a proactive approach by collaborating over several months with our generation planning and power delivery teams. Our team identified key industrial sites that could service large electrical loads within a competitive timeline. We’ve held meetings with our local economic development partners to ensure other adequate infrastructure and resources were available.”
The team also developed presentation material to proactively market these sites for specific large load projects. Leads were generated along with marketing to site location consultants and data center companies, Useforge says. “The successful location of Compass Datacenters near Meridian resulted from this effort through lead generation and marketing to their company specifically,” he writes. “Additionally, Mississippi Power developed a process to help facilitate the volume of requests, to include intake information, load study and contracting.”
Compass Datacenters’ $10 billion, 1,000-job investment landed at the I-20/59 Industrial Park in Meridian in Lauderdale County. Mississippi Power’s agreement with Compass involves 500 MW of power and eight data centers to be constructed over an eight-year period. The Mississippi Public Service Commission approved the contract between MPC and Compass in February 2025. “Their investment in Mississippi reflects confidence in the state’s potential for growth in the technology sector,” said PSC Commissioner Stamps.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure investment continues, including the rebuilt Bayou Casotte substation that hosted a ribbon-cutting last year. The facility has been in operation for 70 of the utility’s 100 years in business.
“We know that Pascagoula and Jackson County are flourishing and experiencing great growth and economic development,” said Mississippi Power Transmission General Manager Stephen Schruff. “We designed this substation to have space for a second transformer to accommodate growth and meet the future needs of our customers.”
Mississippi’s Electric Cooperatives
The 26 organizations that comprise the Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi (ECM) serve nearly 842,000 members across 98,272 miles of energized line. Among the projects being pursued to serve large industrial prospects, Cooperative Energy, together with the 11 Member distribution cooperatives it serves, announced early this year the award of two $10,000 Cooperative Competes grants to the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission to assist with the production of marketing for Port Bienville Site No.1 and Ignition Park.
Port Bienville Site No.1 will be a prime, pad-ready parcel located within Port Bienville Industrial Park, positioned to support heavy manufacturing, logistics and processing operations. “Importantly, all due diligence and environmental studies have been completed for Site No. 1, and the site has earned Bronze Level Designation through CSX’s Select Site Program,” said ECM.
Ignition Park, a newly re-branded, pad-ready industrial development located at Stennis International Airport in Hancock County, represents “a long-term public investment in Mississippi’s economic future, with more than $11.6 million in infrastructure improvements already secured,” said ECM.
