The Public Service Commission voted to reinstate Spire Mississippi's supplemental growth rider (SGR), a tariff mechanism intended to help the utility invest in pipeline extensions that support industrial development and job creation.

Commission staff explained the rider, originally approved in 2015, allows Spire to invest up to $5 million over a three-year term without obtaining project-by-project commission approval. "Since there currently are no announced projects that qualify under the SGR, there is no expected immediate rate impact for renewing the rider," Miss Myrick said, and staff recommended approval.

Danny Ford, identified himself as "the director of regulatory planning for Spire Mississippi and its affiliate company, Spire Gulf," and answered commissioners' questions about potential project sites. Ford said one large potential site is roughly 2,100 acres near Hattiesburg and that construction typically requires a tap to an existing transmission main; past tap estimates he had seen ranged from about $500,000 to multiple millions depending on scope. "We would have to present ... the capital investment involved to serve that site, the forecast load ... the forecast economic development impacts," Ford said, adding that the company would not use the rider without staff and state economic development office approval.

Commissioners pressed for safeguards and accountability after past projects with low connection results. Ford and staff said negotiated rate agreements with annual minimum-volume provisions and credit protections (letters of credit) would limit risk and that staff would review project economics before use. A motion to approve the proposed order was moved, seconded and carried by voice vote.

The commission's action restores the SGR as an available tariff option; commissioners emphasized transparency, staff review and coordination with the state economic development office as conditions that Spire said it would follow.