Can the MS power grid handle Amazon Web Services? See what Entergy CEO has to say

Two new Amazon Web Services hyperscale data centers that gained approval in a Thursday legislative special session will increase power usage on the Entergy grid, officials said.

Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly said that while he cannot say exactly how much the increase in power usage for his company will be, it will be "significant."

One industry expert told the Clarion Ledger that the pull on Entergy will increase by as much as one third "when the switch is flipped on."

On Thursday, after legislators approved the historic buildout for hyperscale development centers during a special session, Amazon Web Services was named as the company that will occupy the two Madison County locations.

During Thursday's special session, Mississippi lawmakers approved a $294 million in financial incentives for the Amazon Web Services $10 billion project in Canton and Madison County.

Tthe project represents the single largest corporate capital investment in state history. Amazon Web Services will build two sites, one a 927-acre site and the other a 786-acre site for the two hyperscale data centers.

How will data centers affect Miss. power grid?

However, Fisackerly said he cannot speak directly to the question of how much load will be used by the data centers.

"Because that refers to a customer's usage, I am not able to talk about what that amount is," Fisackerly said. "But I can say this will be the largest customer for Entergy Mississippi and in the Entergy system (overall)."

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Amazon Web Services, from a power grid standpoint, will require significant investment and multiple substations and transmission to the data centers, Fisackerly said, adding that much of the energy mix will come from green energy.

That is important because elevated levels of black carbon, a factor in cancer risk and climate change, were found in several towns and cities in Mississippi, which can come from manufacturing processes and burning fossil fuels.

"AWS is very committed to sustainability," Fisackerly said. "We are seeing this a lot when it comes to recuiting new industry. They are looking to each state to see what their mix of generation is."

Fisackerly noted that Entergy Mississippi’s largest solar power plant came online two years ago with the completion of a 100-megawatt station near Ruleville in Sunflower County.

The Sunflower Solar Station in the Mississippi Delta provides enough energy to power 16,000 homes.

"We will also be deploying another 650 megawatts of solar in Washington, Hinds and Tallahatchie counties in two sites that we will announce very soon," Fisackerly said. "We just have to work out some terms before we can announce where those will go."

Clean energy facility on the horizon

On the horizon is what Fisackerly called a clean technology generating facility.

"We are still negotiating terms on that as well," he said. "But what I will say is that all of this means that with a customer like this, the more users you have, the greater base you have to spread the costs across. This is going to have a great stabilizing effect on rates for other customers."

Building out the grid now for AWS could mean more interest will be paid to Mississippi down the road, according to Fisckerly.

"There could even be more investments from this particular (group)," he said. "It also is sending a message to the world that Mississippi has attracted one of the largest companies in the world. Our phones are already ringing on other potential projects. All of this shows how Mississippi operates to get things done quickly."

Also, Amazon opening a fulfillment center in Madison County in 2023 was a test case for the hyperscale data center that was announced this week. The 700,000 square-foot facility at the Madison County Mega Site is projected to bring more than 1,000 full-time jobs to the area.

"AWS quickly found out that we were working quickly to remove barriers to them coming to Mississippi," Fisackerly said. "We put them in a situation of 'How do you tell Mississippi no?' And now I think they are going to be surprised as to how quickly we are going to help them build these facilities. Speed to market is going to be key here."

He said people were already on site Friday working to get substations built to service the additional load.

When will construction of the data centers begin?

AWS had already started spending money to clear the site in Madison even before an announcement had been made.

Construction will be done in three phases.

Phase 1 is at the Madison Megasite. That is expected to come online in January 2025. Phase 2 is at the new industrial site in Ridgeland in January 2026. Phase 3 will be at the Madison Megasite, which will come online in January 2027.

— Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Can Entergy MS handle power needed by Amazon Web Services in Madison County?