Pete Talley worries nearby industrial development could make life more expensive in his Northwest Jackson neighborhood. His subdivision sits between a sprawling Amazon data center and a proposed Entergy power plant—part of a sweeping campaign by the electrical provider to bolster Mississippi’s power grid and serve large customers like Amazon.
Talley has read about how data centers’ power demands have driven up electricity rates in other communities, sometimes by hundreds of dollars per month. As Entergy races to power Amazon’s growing data center network in Mississippi, he thinks it’s only a matter of time before his own bills go up.
“We’re gonna have rate increases—I’m absolutely certain about that,” said Talley, an Entergy customer who lives in the Richwood Estates subdivision on the border of Hinds and Madison counties. He and many of his neighbors are retired and living on fixed incomes, he told the Mississippi Free Press in a June 15 interview, and none of them are prepared for a significant spike in rates.
Talley is among the many Mississippians with concerns about Entergy’s contract with Amazon, worried that the data centers and related grid investments could send their electric bills through the roof. A report released in May added weight to those concerns, suggesting that Entergy customers may already be paying higher rates as a result of Amazon’s data centers.
The research estimates that as of March of this year, residential customers have paid roughly $38 million for transmission lines and other infrastructure linked to Amazon’s facilities. Those expenses have raised average customer bills by about $10.60 per month, according to the report, which was prepared on behalf of Earthjustice and Environmental Advocates Mississippi.
“Energy rate increases are notoriously regressive—they affect those with the least means the worst,” said Ben Havumaki, one of the report’s authors and a principal associate at Synapse Energy Economics, a Massachusetts-based consulting group. “Even if 10 or 12 bucks doesn’t sound like so much to someone with ample means, for someone who’s trying to make ends meet, it can be very significant.”
In an emailed statement to the Mississippi Free Press, Entergy Mississippi disputed the report’s findings, arguing that its customers are “benefiting from” data centers rather than “subsidizing” them. While electricity rates are rising in much of the country, data centers are helping to temper rate increases by paying a larger portion of an area’s total energy costs, officials say.
“Independent regulators in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana confirm that data centers are paying their fair share, plus additional benefits for customers,” a company spokesperson wrote on June 2. “And, the Trump administration has pointed to Entergy’s data center agreements as a success story for customers, in line with the White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge.”
Legislative Cover
Energy has become a flashpoint in the national debate over data centers, which can use as much power as some mid-sized cities and account for a growing share of U.S. electricity demand. In Mississippi, much of that demand is driven by Amazon, which is building four data center campuses across three counties (Hinds, Madison and Warren) and relying on Entergy to meet their power needs.
For months, Entergy has framed these projects as a boon for Mississippians, insisting that they will strengthen the local power grid and deliver long-term savings for its customers. Amazon will single-handedly fund new infrastructure associated with its data centers, Entergy officials say, and it will cover an outsized share of grid upgrades and maintenance that would otherwise fall to other ratepayers.
Amazon’s partnership with Entergy also distinguishes it from companies like xAI, which has skirted utility providers altogether and used a collection of gas turbines to power its data centers near Southaven, Mississippi.
“Amazon has given us a lifeline,” Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly told reporters at an April 9 press conference in Madison County. “They are a large customer, they share a greater portion of the cost, and it actually creates benefits for our customers.”
Entergy’s claims cannot be verified, however, because its contract with Amazon is hidden under state law. In 2024, Mississippi passed and enacted Senate Bill 2001, an incentives package granting Entergy and Amazon key regulatory exemptions and shielding their agreement from public scrutiny.
The law classifies the entire deal as a “trade secret,” preventing Mississippians from reviewing its terms or the rates negotiated between the two parties. Those rates also can’t be modified by the Mississippi Public Service Commission—the state’s utility regulator—for the duration of the contract, sparking fears that Entergy could be undercharging Amazon while raising rates for other customers.
S.B. 2001 is “a step back” for transparency and consumer protections in Mississippi, said Quentin Good, a policy analyst at Frontier Group, a research and policy nonprofit under the Public Interest Network. Diminishing the PSC’s regulatory powers will only “entrench that lack of transparency (from) Amazon and Entergy and the contract that they’ve entered into,” he added.
S.B. 2001 also makes it easier for Entergy to build new power infrastructure serving Amazon’s data centers and recover expenses from customers. Under the statute, any grid maintenance or construction linked to the facilities can begin without the standard permits or PSC approvals. Those investments are considered “used and useful”—a regulatory term for utility spending that can be passed on to ratepayers—though costs are subject to a retroactive “prudence review” from the PSC.
The slew of regulatory shortcuts provided by the law “definitely raises red flags,” Good told the Mississippi Free Press on June 17. “I would say there’s a high likelihood that small businesses and residential utility customers are helping to foot the bill, especially in the short run, for those infrastructure upgrades.”
In its own statement to the Mississippi Free Press, Amazon stressed that it’s covering expenses associated with its data centers. Late last year, a company-commissioned analysis of four Amazon data centers—including one facility in Mississippi—found that each site paid for its own electricity needs, with some contributing more than the cost required to power them.
“We pay the full cost of the power and infrastructure we use through long-term investments in transmission, substations, grid upgrades, and new energy generation that help strengthen the broader grid for everyone,” a company spokesperson wrote in a June 2 email. “We believe other large energy users should as well. That’s why we work with utilities on long-term agreements and investments that modernize aging infrastructure to help maintain affordable, reliable power for homes, businesses, hospitals, and communities on the grid where we operate.”
Pulling Back the Curtain
As energy costs climb across the U.S., Entergy has presented data centers and related grid investments as a catalyst for future savings. Deals with companies like Amazon will save Mississippi customers more than $2 billion over the next two decades, the company announced in March, and residential rates are projected to be 16% lower than they otherwise would have been by 2030.
Data center projects are also bringing more efficient and reliable power to Mississippi at no cost to ratepayers, Entergy officials say. The company is building three new power plants across the state—one in Ridgeland, one in Vicksburg and one in Greenville—and the Amazon deal has helped fast-track construction to bring the facilities online sooner.
“Amazon’s investment allows Entergy Mississippi to expand grid‑strengthening work by 50%—cutting outages in half—without raising costs for residents,” Entergy wrote in its June 2 statement. “They are fully funding their infrastructure needs, and their presence helps keep bills affordable while supporting reliability improvements across the state.”
More than two years into its contract with Amazon, however, Entergy has produced limited evidence to support its cost-saving claims. Critics argue S.B. 2001’s confidentiality provisions have helped the utility avoid such disclosures, allowing it to forecast savings without outside vetting.
“Ultimately, the request is to take Entergy and Amazon at their word,” said Ben Havumaki, who co-authored the May report from Synapse Energy, “Because there is no evidence provided to date that rates aren’t going up, and in fact we find quite the opposite when we look at the publicly available data.”
Havumaki acknowledges that the rate hikes cited in his report are estimates based on public utility filings, and that the overall findings are constrained by the secrecy around the Entergy- Amazon contract. By mandating certain disclosures from the companies moving forward, state authorities could bolster public trust and offer a clearer picture of how data centers are actually affecting energy costs, he told the Mississippi Free Press.
As things stand, “the system is designed to make it impossible to know how much data center investments are affecting rates,” Havumaki said. “All we can do is use the publicly available information.”
The Mississippi Legislature could also take steps to shield consumers from potential rate hikes, like requiring data center operators to pay a monthly service fee to offset grid investments powering their facilities, explained Quentin Good of the Frontier Group. While Entergy may have included some ratepayer protections in the Amazon deal, the agreement’s inaccessibility makes it impossible to know for sure, he added.
“The lack of transparency (within) the industry is shooting data centers in the foot,” Good said. “Electricity is a public good, so why should the public not be privy to what’s happening with their public good?”
In Northwest Jackson, Pete Talley is skeptical that the data center down the road will keep his energy bills from rising. He worries the site carries public health risks on top of its massive power demands, and he feels state officials have rushed to greenlight the facilities at ratepayers’ expense.
“We’ll be subsidizing it—that’s almost common knowledge,” Talley said of Mississippi’s data center boom. Once construction is complete, “it’ll be Pandora’s Box.”
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of data centers and read past stories here.
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