WTOK recently highlighted that Kemper is on track for full production in the first half of 2016. See below for details:

You get what you pay for, is an idiom we hear all too often. Providing service and high quality products is the aim for many businesses, so customers can get the biggest bang for their buck. Like all businesses you must adapt to the changing times and that’s what Mississippi Power is doing when it comes to building a new power plant.

“Electricity comes from large power plants and every so often it’s time for us to make an investment and build a new power plant,” Mississippi Power Spokesperson Jeff Shepard said. “We have not done this since the late 70s early 80s. It is different and it’s not something that happens all the time.”

The Kemper Coal Plant is on track to open in the first half of 2016, but customers are already benefiting from the plant. “We put the combined cycle into service,” said Shepard. “So there’s a portion of the project that is already operating, already producing electricity, and already serving our customers. We put that into service in August of 2014. So it has actually been producing electricity for more than a year now.”

Mississippi Power says the remainder of the facility that is scheduled to go online next year, is the clean coal portion of the plant, The company says that their mission still hasn’t changed, and that’s to serve the customer to the best of their ability.

“When it comes to providing service, providing reliable service, that’s what our aim is,” said Shepard. “This facility will help us meet that aim.”

Plans for the coal plant were first announced in 2006. It is now expected that production will begin in the first half of 2016.