The Public Service Commission will get no help from the Public Utilities Staff or the Attorney General as it decides whether to allow Prado AI to build a 350-megawatt natural gas fired electric generation facility to power an AI data center in Ridgeland.
Prado AI asked the Commission on March 2 to issue a declaratory opinion on whether the company can produce its own electricity solely to serve its needs without regulation by the Commission. The generation facility will not interconnect with the existing electrical grid.The company stated it will not sell nor meter any electricity to the public. The company plans to lease the data center to tenants. Thus electricity will be available to those who sign a lease and pay rent, similar to a rental agreement in an apartment complex.As expected, the request stirred up a hornets nest among Mississippi's power companies, used they are to having their own way. Entergy, Mississippi Power, Delta Electric, and a slew of electrical coops filed objections to Prado's request, arguing the project should be treated as a public utility. Although Prado AI claimed it would not charge tenants for electricity, the tenants themselves should be considered "the public". Thus Prado AI should have to go through the same approval process as other public utilities. Entergy pointed out the project would occur in its certificated area as it defended its monopoly.
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The Public Service Commission said it would rule on the matter by June 1 although it is a safe bet this fight will wind up in court regardless of the decision.
The Public Utilities Staff declined to issue an opinion on the request:
3. Staff concludes that Prado Al's request for a declaratory opinion, based on the set of facts and circumstances it provided to the parties, presents a mixed question of law and fact... 4. On May 7, 2026, the Mississippi Attorney General's Office issued a denial via telephone, declining to issue an Official Opinion on the matter. The Attorney General's Office cited several reasons which preclude it from opining on the issue presented, including the fact that the request presents (1) a question requiring a factual determination, (2) a question of legislative policy, and (3) an issue likely to lead to litigation due to the interventions in the docket. 5. In addition to presenting a question of law requiring an interpretation of legislative intent, Staff agrees with the Attorney General's Office that the limited facts presented by Prado AI present multiple questions of fact such that any variable could result in a different opinion. Here, Prado AI has asked the Commission to issue a blanket opinion that will have far-reaching implications for other petitioners before this Commission. Based on the filings in the docket and Prado Al's responses to data requests, Staff concludes that such a blanket opinion cannot be issued because Prado Al's request·is far too hypothetical. 7. Accordingly, Staff concludes that the facts set forth in this docket are insufficient to reach a legal conclusion as to the application of the statutes presented in Prado Al's Request for Declaratory Opinion.
The Public Utilities Staff asked the Attorney General to issue an expedited opinion on April 30. The opinion requests states the key issue is:
Does the narrowly tailored exception under Miss. Code Ann. § 77-3-3(d), historically interpreted to exempt building owners from being considered a public utility simply for providing utility services to tenants as an incident of employee service or tenancy, also apply to a private power generation facility that will generate power it then provides to its paying tenants under a lease agreement?The Public Utilities Staff conceded an apartment complex or marina is not considered to be a public utility because it is not selling electricity to tenants. However, Staff claimed there is a key distinction:
Importantly, in each of these examples, the landlord is not generating electric power (or water or sewer). The landlord in each case is a customer of an existing public utility. . An entity that generates, manufactures, transmits, distributes, provides, or furnishes electricity to or for the public for compensation is by default a ""public utility"" under the Public Utility Act unless it cari. establish an exception through facts and evidence. Here, the entity plans to also generate, transmit, and distribute electricity, not just solely ""provide"" or "furnish" electricity as contemplated by the landlord-tenant exception in the statute...
The request for an opinion concludes with a question:
But does the nature of the entity's business..:. data center and semiconductor production services, both impractical without constant reliable electric power implicate a ''public utility/customer"" relationship more than a ""landlord/tenant"" relationship?
Jackson developer Gabriel Prado owns Prado AI. Earlier post with copies of all PSC filings.
21 comments:
I am glad this happening. As energy tech is progressing it has become easier and easier for regular people to produce their energy. It is still extremely expensive but I bet in the future it wont be.
Conservatives say the government that governs the least, governs the best. Project Stargate is funded by the GOP and Trump. So why is the so-called “conservative” MSGOP standing in a businessman’s way of doing business approved by the Golden Godking of MAGA?
As stupid as it may sound, is this question about using electricty for only your own use making you a public utility? If it does, does the fact that when my home standby generator kicks in, am I a public utility?
Everybody's electric bill is already too damn high!
Mississippi's Clean Coal could supply all the backyard power plants Mississippi wants and needs.
Every business with a power bill that's too damn high should generate their own power with Mississippi's Clean Coal.
Conservatives only care about conserving THEIR money above all else. That includes their taxpayer funded rice bowls. It’s open season on anything that threatens their place at the hog trough! And that includes the interests who have already bought them! The big boys at AWS and xAI already flew into town with pallets of cash. Meta, Microsoft, and Google already bought politicians in other states. Palantr has their top secret data centers. Not much room left for a local businessman like Prado AI.
I'm pulling for Prado and hope he has the resources to stay in this fight long term. Electric utilities have gotten away with so much for so long.
Time for Stamps to prove his mettle.
There has to be some kind of reasonable middle ground. I for less regulation and for regular paying customers to not have to take on downside risk by having to be connected to the grid for these projects.
I am against a future dystopia where a bunch of data centers/etc generate their own electricity and have no environmental regulations keeping them in line. A dystopia where all these private entities are making us live in a smog city hellscape but it is private electricity.
Mississippi's greatest treasure is its natural beauty. We live in such a beautiful state.
MDEQ will still regulate this project.
I doubt that location is acceptable for 350 MW of generation.
Distilling the facts as presented, it seems Prado merely wants to create a closed-loop or "off the grid" system. I'm sure it's more complicated that that because, presumably, Prado would be connected to the internet through some fiber arrangement.
Have the power companies filed similar action against xAI's power generation via gas turbines in North MS, or is this a case of a corporate attorneys advising, as a great philosopher once said, "when to hold them and when to fold them?"
Y'all are full of shit. Stargate Project is funded entirely through private-sector investments and does not receive one penny of federal government funding. But thanks for checking in, Bennie.
They drained California’s water, energy, and resources, and now taxpayers in one of the poorest states are expected to subsidize water and power for the richest man in the world. Meanwhile, many people here still struggle with reliable energy, clean water, and high-speed internet. It feels like ordinary citizens are being asked to sacrifice so billionaires can build AI data centers, bunkers, and rockets aimed at escaping to another planet.
Just another attractive target for Iranian and Chinese nukes.
"Elon Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 natural gas turbines at its Mississippi data center, power plants that the state is currently not regulating thanks to a loophole.
The power plants are considered “mobile” by the state of Mississippi because they are sitting on flatbed trailers, thus allowing them to dodge air pollution regulations for one year. The NAACP, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents in the area, says the unchecked emissions from the turbines is worsening air quality in an already polluted region. This week, it asked the court for an injunction against xAI.
At issue is the “mobile” nature of the turbines. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP, says the turbines are being operated in violation of federal law, which states that power plants mounted on a trailer can still be considered stationary and subject to air-pollution regulations."
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/13/musks-xai-is-running-nearly-50-gas-turbines-unchecked-at-its-mississippi-data-center/
xAI is generating power for itself, whereas Prado wants to generate power for tenants. There is a huge difference in the two situations.
Yawn, more fake news.
Monopolies ALWAYS fight competition...
Considering the inaccuracy of the Iranian tech, its doubtful they could hit any intended target.
There's a regulatory loophole in Mississippi? That's not possible! /s
“Can still be considered stationary” and “should be considered stationary” are very different. The use of “can” gives a choice, and MDEQ chose to or was instructed to call them mobile.
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