Short version: no, you cannot shop for your electricity provider in Mississippi, and no supplier comparison site is going to help you here — anyone offering to "switch your provider" in Mississippi is not describing a real option. What you can do is control how much power you use and how you're billed for it. This guide covers both.
Can you choose your electricity provider in Mississippi?
No. Mississippi is a regulated electricity state. That means one utility, or in rural areas one electric cooperative, holds the exclusive right to serve a given territory — there is no competing retailer market layered on top of the wires like there is in deregulated states such as Texas or Ohio. Whoever serves your address is your only option, full stop.
The tradeoff for having no choice is that rates aren't left to a marketplace — they're set through a formal regulatory process overseen by the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PUC). The utility has to justify its costs and requested rate increases in a public rate case, and the PUC approves, adjusts, or rejects them. It's a different kind of consumer protection than provider choice, but it's the one Mississippi has.
What power actually costs in Mississippi
The average Mississippi residential electricity rate is 14¢/kWh, based on EIA preliminary 2025 data.
Full Mississippi electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Mississippi (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 6.9 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 6.9 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 7.0 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 7.1 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 7.1 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 7.0 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 7.0 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 7.0 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 7.0 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 6.8 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 6.9 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 7.4 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 7.3 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 7.6 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 8.2 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 8.7 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 9.7 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 9.4 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 10.4 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 10.2 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 9.9 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 10.2 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 10.3 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 10.8 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 11.3 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 11.3 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 10.5 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 11.1 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 11.1 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 11.3 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 11.2 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 11.6 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 12.4 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 13.2 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 13.4 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 14.0 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
That 14¢ figure is up 61% since 2005, and over the last decade the pace has settled to roughly 2.2% per year. Two things are worth noticing in that trend. First, the increase has been gradual rather than a single shock — consistent with a regulated system where rate changes move through periodic PUC proceedings rather than swinging with a live market. Second, a 61% increase over two decades is a real erosion of buying power for a fixed household budget, even at a modest annual pace — which is exactly why the "control what you can control" approach in this guide matters more here than in states where you can just switch suppliers to chase a lower number.
Why your rate is set the way it is
In a regulated monopoly, the utility owns generation, transmission, and distribution in its service area and recovers its costs through PUC-approved rates rather than through market competition. Three things typically drive the number on your bill upward over time:
- Fuel mix — Mississippi utilities lean heavily on natural gas for generation, so gas price swings pass through to rates, usually with a lag.
- Grid infrastructure — pole, line, substation, and storm-hardening investment gets recovered through rates approved in rate cases.
- Rate cases — the formal PUC proceedings where a utility requests, and the commission approves or trims, a rate adjustment. These land periodically, not smoothly, which is part of why bills can jump in a given year rather than creeping evenly.
None of this is shaped by competitive pressure, because there isn't any — which is precisely why it matters to understand it rather than assume "shopping around" is an option.
How to actually lower your bill
With provider choice off the table, the real levers are usage, timing, and equipment.
- Efficiency first. Air sealing, attic insulation, and a properly serviced HVAC system are usually the biggest and fastest-payback wins — see our electrical guide for what's worth checking in your own home's wiring and load first.
- Ask about time-of-use rates. Some Mississippi utilities offer a time-of-use schedule where power is cheaper in off-peak hours. If you can shift laundry, dishwashing, EV charging, or pool pump run-time to off-peak windows, this can meaningfully cut your bill without cutting usage.
- Consider budget billing. This averages your annual cost into a flat monthly payment. It won't lower your total spend, but it removes the July air-conditioning shock and the January heating shock — useful if unpredictability, not the total, is your actual problem.
- Run the solar math against 14¢/kWh. Rooftop solar economics depend on your roof's sun exposure, installation cost, and — critically in a regulated state — your specific utility's net-metering or buyback terms, since that policy is set by the utility rather than a competitive market. See our solar panels guide for how to evaluate a quote against your real rate instead of a national average.
A practical checklist
- Confirm which utility or cooperative serves your address and look up its current residential rate schedule
- Ask if a time-of-use rate is available and whether your usage pattern would actually benefit from it
- Enroll in budget billing if seasonal swings, not total cost, are the pain point
- Request a free or low-cost home energy audit from your utility
- Get a solar quote that explicitly states the utility's net-metering terms, not just panel cost and generic payback estimates
- Revisit your HVAC system's service history — most homes' single biggest electric load is heating and cooling