Miss. Regulators, Utility Agree More Power Needed

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Power Co. has received the first level of regulatory approval in its effort to build a new coal-powered generating plant in the east-central part of the state.

The three-member state Public Service Commission ruled Monday that the company has demonstrated a need to increase its capacity to generate electricity. The ruling came a month after the PSC held several days of hearings.

The next step in the process begins Feb. 1, when the PSC will begin another round of public hearings to gather more information about the proposed lignite plant that Mississippi Power wants to open by 2014 in Kemper County, near the Alabama state line.

"The first phase was the need phase, and now the question is what meets those needs," PSC Chairman Lynn Posey said in an interview Tuesday.

He said Monday's ruling "does not guarantee that the plant is what we will determine best fits the need."

Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co., says the plant would use a new technology that converts a soft coal called lignite into a gas that would fuel turbines to create electricity. Company officials say the lignite would be locally mined and cheaper than natural gas.