Page 103 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2025

The advent of the federal Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the post-Depression “New Deal” programs, settled Mississippi Power’s service territory to the 23 counties it serves today in southeast Mississippi.
In the early days of the company, Mississippi Power established a special division focused on attracting business and industry to the state. The company’s Economic Development department remains the oldest such organization in the state.
Today, the company serves its customers with five power
plants, five solar generation facilities, more than 2,000 miles of transmission wire and more than 6,000 miles of distribution wire.
Mississippi Power, though, is connected to its communities by more than just wires. The company’s employee volunteer groups, fittingly called Community Connection, are highly active in the areas where they work — volunteering their time for service projects, raising money to support nonprofit organizations, mentoring young people and much more.
Employees clean waterways across the company’s service territory through its award-winning Renew Our Rivers program and collect household hazardous waste at its annual Bring It! event. The Mississippi Power Foundation also makes strategic investments in transformational projects across the state.
Mississippi Power is actively investing in its system and equipment with the latest technology to provide industry-leading reliability. More than 96 percent of its customers are now on a self-healing network that greatly reduces the number and frequency of outages by rerouting power around trouble areas. The company is also replacing wooden poles with steel and concrete structures in storm- prone areas to decrease disruption in service.
There is tremendous momentum in Mississippi evidenced by
the major announcements of the Compass Datacenters project in Meridian and the PCC GulfChem plant in DeLisle, with more in the pipeline that will transform the company in the next five to 10 years.
“We are excited to build upon this momentum and our cherished legacy as we move into our next 100 years of powering progress,” Cherry said. “We are grateful to serve our customers and communities, a privilege we take very seriously. We will never waver in our commitment to reliably lighting the homes and businesses of southeast Mississippi, advocating for growth and development across our region and state and being a leader in the communities we support.”
Story and photos courtesy of Mississippi Power
Line crew working at Camp Shelby in the early 1970s.
Mississippi Power’s original steam plant sat where the company’s headquarters is located today.
The Gulfport Division Office on 25th Avenue in 1947.