PEER reviewed state laws regulating Mississippi’s electric power associations and municipal utilities to determine whether they should be revised to improve operational efficiency, governance and oversight. PEER concludes that the federal government, through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Rural Electrification Association, provides acceptable levels of oversight over utilities which fall within the purview of these agencies. Electric power associations and municipal electric utilities outside the jurisdiction of these two federal agencies are responsible for policing their own actions. State agencies, such as the Public Service Commission and the Department of Audit, have limited statutory oversight authority.
PEER also performed a comparison of electric power association and municipal electric utility cost data and found that the lower energy cost of TVA-generated power is a plus for those utilities within the TVA service area, and those that have higher concentrations of consumers per line mile are generally able to pass the savings on to the consumer. The fact that some municipal electric utilities are permitted to transfer excess revenue to the city general fund is correlated with higher levels of consumer markup, but the relationship needs additional study to establish the exact impact on the consumer.
For a paper copy of this report, contact PEER by telephone at 601-359-1226 or by e-mail at reports@peer.ms.gov.