Lower fuel costs mean Entergy Mississippi will be charging its customers less for the rest of the year.

“We are pleased to pass these savings on to customers,” said Carolyn Shanks, president and CEO of the Entergy subsidiary that markets electricity in 45 counties, including Warren.

The 9 percent drop is for residential and commercial customers. For those who had been paying $103 for 1,000 kilowatts, the new charge would be $94.

Entergy spokesman Checky Herrington said fuel purchase adjustments are made quarterly rather than annually. The next adjustment will be in January and will reflect costs then.

“It really depends on what the market does,” he said. “It could be good news or it could be some challenging news.”

Power bills have two components shown monthly. One is the base rate, which can be changed only with the permission of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. It is designed to cover the company’s generating, maintenance and operational costs plus profit. The other component reflects what Entergy is paying for fuel to fire generating plants. It can be changed by the company without regulatory approval.

Entergy has a variety of generating plants, including natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear.

“Our objective is to find the most affordable fuel we can and we use all of those fuels in order to generate the power,” Herrington said.

Entergy Mississippi has 427,000 customers. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, which delivers power to 2.6 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.