Customer demand sets new winter peak

A week of frosty weather and the mercury dropping to the lowest levels this season had Mississippi Power employees working hard to keep up with customers’ needs.

The recent arctic blast led to a new all-time winter peak demand. Between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Friday, January 24, 2003 customer usage reached 2,523,000 kilowatts, nearly a 10 percent increase from the previous winter record of 2,311,000 kilowatts set last January.

Peak demand is when customers require the greatest amount of electricity in any one-hour period in winter and summer.

“Obviously, the near-record cold drives such high demand,” said Mississippi Power spokesman Kurt Brautigam. “Although the new peak is nearly 10 percent higher than last years winter high, we had no problems meeting those demands. We’ve added generating capacity in recent years to keep up with the growth in customer usage.”

Electric utilities in the South usually peak during the summer months because of the widespread use of air conditioning. However, extremely cold weather in the region can sometimes push winter electricity use near summer usage levels. The new winter record nearly matches Mississippi Power’s all-time summer peak of 2,593,000 kilowatts set in August 2000.

“It’s interesting to note that the summers of 2001 and 2002 have been relatively mild, so we haven’t established a record summer peak for three years now,” Brautigam said. “We do want our customers be aware, though, that with such high usage they could well see increases in their next bills,” Brautigam added. “If anyone has a question about their bill or anything else we can help them with, they should feel free to call our toll-free customer service number at (800) 532-1502.”

New invention will test first at Plant Watson

This spring, Mississippi Power’s Plant Watson will be the first U.S. testing site of new technology designed to help reduce fine coal ash emissions. The pretreatment device, called an agglomerator, is the invention of Indigo Technologies, headquartered in Queensland, Australia.

Both of Plant Watson’s coal-burning units are equipped with precipitators, which are responsible for removing ash particles from the flue gas before it goes out the stack. The agglomerator will be installed inside the ductwork leading to the precipitator on the plant’s unit 4. Its design uses an electric charge to magnetize the smaller ash particles flowing to the precipitator, making them stick to larger particles which are easier for the precipitator to collect.

“The current technology operating on our coal-fired units is highly effective and removes 99.5% of the ash as it leaves the stacks,” said Mississippi Power spokesman Kurt Brautigam. “But smaller ash particles can be the hardest to capture, and we’re interested in seeing if we can increase our effectiveness even more.”

The agglomerator at Plant Watson will be installed in March. Southern Company Services, the Electric Power Research Institute and several other utilities will share the cost of the installation. Thorough testing will be conducted on both sides of the precipitator to determine the effectiveness of the agglomerator. If the technology is successful, it could be adapted for other power plants around the country.

“Over the last 10 years, tremendous efforts have been undertaken to make Plant Watson a cleaner plant, and we are very proud of the success that has been achieved,” Brautigam said. “We continue to look for ways of reducing emissions even further, and the agglomerator appears to have the potential to help us do that.”

Mississippi Power ranks first in Customer Value

For the third year in a row, Mississippi Power ranked first in overall customer value, according to a survey of Southern Company customers and customers of 16 other utilities in the nation.

Overall rankings are based on survey results from the three customer groups—residential, commercial and industrial. The customer value measure includes customers’ responses to a variety of questions relating to areas such as employee competence, pricing, reliability, image and other service issues.

For the past seven years Mississippi Power has continued to outperform its peers on the survey, ranking either first or second. “It is extremely difficult to consistently maintain such high customer scores, but once again, our employees defied the odds,” said Mississippi Power spokesman Kurt Brautigam. “These results are a direct reflection of their consistent work ethic and dedication to meeting customers’ needs.”

With large business customers, Mississippi Power ranked first, followed by Alabama Power and Georgia Power. Mississippi Power also ranked first with general business customers, followed by Gulf Power and Georgia Power. Mississippi Power ranked second with residential customers, behind Duke Energy and ahead of Alabama Power.

California “ends” deregulation

California’s disastrous experiment with electricity deregulation ended quietly in a brief order issued last month by state utility regulators. The five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously voted to cancel an order from April, 1994 that set the state on a course toward what they thought would be cheaper electricity through free market competition.

The January order, which CPUC Commissioner Carl Wood called “historically significant,” noted that restructuring California’s energy market was now a moot point. “The commission should close this deregulation proceeding, not just because there is no continuing need for it, but also because it was a disaster for ratepayers, utilities and their employees,” said Wood.

California’s deregulation law required the state’s investor-owned utilities to sell off their power plants to foster competition, forcing them to purchase power supplies from the wholesale market but capping the rates they could charge customers. By spring 2000, wholesale power prices soared and the California market was plunged into chaos. The crisis worsened in late 2000 and early 2001 with power blackouts, a growing shortage of electricity supplies and a financial meltdown of Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s biggest utility with 14 million customers.

While California is still trying to recover from the process, which cost the state an estimated $45 billion, efforts at electricity restructuring around the rest of the country have varied widely.

Most restructuring efforts have been concentrated mainly in states where customer costs have been traditionally high, but evolution to an open market has been slow. Customers in New England states have shown little inclination to switch to alternative suppliers. The results of electric competition in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois and Texas have also been hard to judge, mainly because alternative electricity providers are charging rates that are either equal to or exceed those of the existing utilities’ prices.

Mississippi is one of many states that have not attempted restructuring—with prices well below the national average, the Mississippi Public Service Commission concluded in 2000 that a competitive electric industry would not be beneficial to the state’s consumers. Alabama and Florida officials have also studied the issue but have not enacted any change. In Georgia, where the natural gas market was deregulated by the state, the resulting consumer complaints, high prices and high rate of unpaid bills have been cited as major reasons the state has not attempted electricity restructuring.

“Many states, including Arkansas and Nevada, have put efforts to restructure their electric markets on hold after watching the California crisis play out,” said Kurt Brautigam, Mississippi Power spokesman. “It certainly justifies our public service commissioners’ decision to not exchange a system that works for something untested. What sometimes works in theory may not translate into the real world, especially with a complex, essential service like providing electricity.”

United Way giving continues to grow

Mississippi Power and its employees have once again met the challenge for United Way, with employee and company contributions during this year’s campaign increasing more than any other year. This year’s total United Way contribution of $358,001.51 – a combination of employee donations and a Mississippi Power Foundation match – surpasses last year’s contributions by more than $27,000.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment that shows the generous spirit of our employees,” said Mississippi Power spokesman Kurt Brautigam. “We all live and work in the communities we serve, and know how important it is to contribute to our overall quality of life.”

Nearly 75% of all Mississippi Power employees participated in this year’s campaign. Contributions will be made to the United Ways of East Mississippi, South Mississippi, Pine Belt Region, and Jackson and George Counties.