Mississippi Power’s Plant Watson put electricity on the power grid over the weekend for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. Watson Unit 4 generated its first megawatt Friday evening, 46 days after Katrina’s storm surge flooded the plant and caused all of its units to be shut down.

The unit was ramped up and reached its full generating capacity of 250 megawatts early Sunday morning.

“We’ve been working around the clock to repair and restore the components damaged in the flooding,” said Sam Sumner, plant manager. “Our plant employees have demonstrated total commitment and dedication to returning the plant to service and, with the assistance of Southern Company employees and resources, we’ve reached this goal two weeks ahead of schedule.”

More than 16 million gallons of water filled Plant Watson’s lower levels, reaching a depth of nearly 20 feet. While the facility’s main components, such as the turbine generators and boilers, were not damaged, nearly all of the electronic controls and water pumps were affected. Restoration efforts included inspecting, repairing and testing thousands of switches and electronic connections, 2000 cables, 51 motors and 43 pumps.

“Returning this plant to service will be extremely beneficial to our customers,” Sumner said. “Units 4 and 5 are our most efficient and economic sources of generation, which is why we’ve worked so hard to return them to service as quickly as possible.”

Unit 5, a 500-megawatt coal fired unit, is on track to return to service by the end of the year. Overall, Plant Watson’s generating capacity is slightly more than 1000 megawatts.

Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of southern Company, serves customers in 23 southeastern Mississippi counties.