Mississippi ruling clears path for private AI power. Prado moves forward
The Mississippi Public Service Commission has ruled that companies can generate their own power without being regulated as a public utility, clearing the path for Gabriel Prado's company, PraCon Global, to develop AI industrial campuses with on-site power. This ruling aims to prevent energy cost increases for Mississippi ratepayers by allowing private power generation for data centers. The decision comes amidst ongoing local opposition to data center development in Jackson.
The Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) has issued a ruling that allows companies to generate electricity for their own private commercial use without being classified as a public utility. This decision specifically benefits Gabriel Prado and his company, PraCon Global Investment Group, also known as PRADO AI, as it clears the way for their plans to build AI industrial campuses and data centers across Mississippi, particularly in the Jackson area. Prado's projects aim to include on-site power generation to support AI data centers and semiconductor manufacturing facilities, intending to operate off-grid and thus prevent energy costs from being passed on to Mississippi ratepayers.
Prado emphasized that the PSC's decision upholds existing Mississippi law, which exempts entities providing electricity to themselves or tenants as an incident of tenancy from public utility regulation. He plans to develop these advanced AI industrial campuses in areas currently lacking sufficient grid infrastructure from major utilities like Entergy Mississippi and Southern Company, such as the Mississippi Delta and Southwest Mississippi. Prado highlighted that 100% of the power costs for these operations would be borne by his company, ensuring no impact on ratepayers.
The ruling occurs within a broader context of growing data center development in Mississippi, with existing facilities from companies like Amazon (AWS), Compass Datacenters, and AVAIO Digital relying on utilities like Entergy and Mississippi Power. However, local opposition to data centers is also evident; recently, dozens of Jackson residents protested new data center developments, citing concerns over energy rates and resource impact. The article also mentions a statewide moratorium on large data centers passed in Maine as a point of comparison for national trends in data center regulation.