NATCHEZ — Because of an under recovery of fuel costs, mainly because of rising natural gas prices, customers of Entergy Mississippi Inc. will see a temporary rate increase of nearly 5 percent in mid-year 2014.

Fuel is used to generate electricity and costs are passed through to the customer dollar-for-dollar with no profit to the company.

With the temporary increase, the typical residential customer using 1,000 kWh will pay $113.65 beginning with July bills. That’s nearly $5.57 more than the typical customer paid for the same amount of electricity at the beginning of this year. This amount also includes a small increase related to ad valorem taxes of $.25.

Entergy Mississippi’s residential rates will remain below the national average residential rate of $117.60, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s latest figures.

“The unusually cold winter and high usage led to a sharp increase in natural gas prices, which is a significant driver of our under recovery,” said Haley Fisackerly, Entergy Mississippi president and CEO. “Right now, we have incurred more than $60 million in fuel costs that have not been collected through current rates.”

Entergy Mississippi is requesting a mid-year adjustment to its rates because natural gas prices are projected to remain above the fuel price currently being charged to customers. Natural gas costs rose about 12.5 percent in 2013 and rose 33 percent in 2012. Even with the rise in price, natural gas is still a very affordable, abundant and efficient fuel source, and prices today remain significantly below record high prices in 2008.

Entergy Mississippi Inc. provides electricity to approximately 441,000 customers in 45 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, which has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.