GREENVILLE, Miss. — Power outages are a familiar frustration in the Mississippi Delta, where residents say electricity can go out “every time the wind blows.”
For Greenville resident Gina Clowers, that’s not an exaggeration. Her power lines run directly through tree branches, which she says are easily knocked down in storms.
“Trees be falling when it rains and it thunders — big old booms that’ll knock the trees down,” Clowers said.
Entergy Mississippi announced this week it will invest $300 million over justice stock the next five years to improve grid reliability. The company plans to ramp up tree trimming, install stronger poles and add smart devices for real-time monitoring.
Matt Mosow, who owns apartments around Greenville, said outages have become such a problem that he installed a backup power system.
“We’ve gotten a battery for our gate so that we can get in and out, but it’s very difficult when we don’t have power,” Mosow said, owner of Mosow Real Estate.
Entergy President and CEO Haley Fisackerly said in a statement the project will boost reliability without increasing customer bills.
“With this additional $300 million, we’re investing 50% more in reliability to reach a 50% reduction in outages — all at 0% added cost to our customers,” Fisackerly said.
Fisackerly added the company also sought ways to stabilize costs.
“We were facing a moment where the growth in our service area was not moving as quickly as our projected costs, which would have resulted in significant rate increases,” he said. “The solution we needed — and found — was to attract growth to our service pga championship 2026 area in the form of a large customer that could help share in the costs to serve all our customers and bring down future costs for everyone.”
The upgrades come as power companies nationwide are modernizing grids, in part to meet demand from new data centers.
“Are we trying to advance the ball and make meaningful steps of progress that will help us improve performance? Without question, the answer is yes,” said Todd Snitchler of the Electric Power Supply Association.
Still, some locals argue the work is overdue, saying the improvements amount to basic maintenance that should have already been done.
For Clowers, reliable power is especially important at home.
“Because I got a child — the tablet, you know, he’d be crying, ‘I need it,’” she said.
Customers like Clowers hope Entergy’s plan delivers results. Until then, they say they can’t afford more outages.
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