Reuters – Utility defends Kemper County proposal
HOUSTON, April 30 (Reuters) – Southern Co’s Mississippi Power unit has defended its request to build a $2.2 billion advanced coal plant in Kemper County, Mississippi, against opponents who want state regulators to halt a review of the project.
Southern’s smallest utility unit wants the Mississippi Public Service Commission to certify the need for a 582-megawatt integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant to be built by 2013 in Kemper County.
The utility, which serves 189,000 customers in the southeastern corner of the state, wants commission action by August so it can buy equipment and meet a deadline to qualify for nearly $500 million in federal incentives.
But the costly Kemper County IGCC project has drawn opposition from the Mississippi Attorney General as well as the Sierra Club and competing power producers.
Reuters
4/30/9
Magnolia Tribune
