The Mississippi Public Service Commission declined Friday to issue an opinion on whether a developer that wants to build a private power plant for an artificial intelligence campus would be regulated as a public utility, and the project’s developer said he will move forward anyway.
Gabriel Prado, CEO and president of PraCon Global Investment Group, said he was “celebrating the ruling of the Public Service Commission,” Mississippi Today reported. Prado’s affiliate, Prado AI, originally filed in March asking the commission whether it would be considered a public utility if it generated and supplied power to tenants at a potential data center and semiconductor manufacturing campus, according to the filing.
The commission said the request was premature and hypothetical and that it did not have enough information to reach an opinion. Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps told Mississippi Today Prado failed to answer “basic” questions, including how many tenants the power would serve. The commission’s report said the limited facts presented could lead to different outcomes if any variable changed.
Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power oppose the effort, arguing Prado AI’s plan to generate and supply electricity to tenants would make it a public utility. In a brief to the commission, Mississippi Power warned the request “could intentionally or unintentionally upset this delicate regulatory balance” and cause “significant and sweeping impacts,” and Entergy wrote in an April 13 filing that an entity planning to construct a generator “must still obtain a CPCN from the (PSC) first.” Entergy added in a statement to Mississippi Today that it supports customers’ right to generate power under state law but wants assurance that interconnection and related costs would not be passed to its ratepayers.
Prado said he withheld some details to preserve a competitive advantage and called the commission’s decision “the best outcome in our legal strategy.” Prado AI is still seeking funding for a project Prado compared to Amazon data centers, which he said start at $1 billion, and he said his long-term goal is more than $25 billion. Any project would still require state and local permits; Mississippi Today reported the Jackson City Council is considering a six-month moratorium on data center construction, and Ridgeland officials in April adopted an ordinance creating a 500-foot buffer between data centers and residents and requiring facilities to plan for electricity, water and sewer needs.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
