Safety is vital around electricity

Electricity is a powerful tool—one that we can’t live without but one that must be respected. That’s a message that Mississippi Power employees live by, and one the company seeks to reinforce to its customers through advertising.

Employees of Mississippi Power are in the midst of a “101 Days of Summer” program, which focuses on working safely from May 23 until September 1, when there are likely to be more outages and downed lines due to stormy summer weather. Also, as line crews and plant workers strive to meet higher customer demand for electricity, they’re working during the hottest times of the day, which can raise the potential for on-the-job accidents.

“Our employees meet every week to discuss various ways they can avoid hazards of working in the summer heat,” said Kurt Brautigam, Mississippi Power spokesman. “Meeting topics range from heat exhaustion and insect bites to defensive driving.

“One way of heightening awareness is to give them information they can use. Sometimes it’s the little things that are taken for granted or overlooked in the routine of work that can cause accidents.”

However, the company is not only focusing on job safety—a new advertising campaign will direct attention to customer safety as well.

“We stress the importance of safety on the job with our employees,” said Brautigam, “but the message in these ads is that our customers’ safety around power lines is just as important.”

In addition, child-oriented safety advertisements featuring Louie the Lightning Bug will run on local channels during prime children’s viewing times.

“Louie is a longtime favorite of the kids,” Brautigam said. “Even though he’s been around awhile, children continue to enjoy him and hear his messages. Our overall objective is to remind customers – large and small – to work and play safely around power lines.”

Summer heat leads to increased electric usage

Summer has been heating up across the Southeast. High temperatures and humidity have been driving electricity usage up throughout the region. The Southern Company system, which includes companies operating in parts of four states, including Mississippi, set an all-time record peak of 34,228,000 kilowatts on July 14. Mississippi Power has seen several annual peaks so far, and has come close to its all-time record peak of 2,593,000 kilowatts, set August 29, 2000.

As additional electricity is needed to keep up with demand, Mississippi Power’s generating plant workers focus on meeting that need.

“The key to making it through the rest of the summer’s hot days is to focus on keeping the plants up and running,” said company spokesman Kurt Brautigam. “To maximize their units’ availability and reliability, our employees maintain constant communications between operations and the other departments.”

Much of the manual labor to prepare generating units for the summer peak season is done during spring maintenance outages. This time of year is when employees test their mental awareness and operational practices. Everyone is on alert to make sure customer demand is being met.

Mississippi Power’s generating units are fueled either by coal or natural gas. Because of the higher levels of demand this year, Plant Watson’s smaller gas units have been cycling on and off to supplement the plant’s baseline coal units. Units at Plant Eaton (in Petal) and Plant Sweatt (Meridian) were also started up in July for the first time in almost 18 months.

“Because we had such a mild summer last year, the Eaton and Sweatt units, which are used for times of highest demand, weren’t needed and didn’t run,” said Brautigam. “We decided to run these units to ensure their readiness for any peak season demands this year. It is also a good opportunity to keep operations personnel on their toes.”

TRI numbers filed for 2003

Mississippi Power filed its annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reports for 2003 with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state Department of Environmental Quality in June. These required reports help inform the public of more than 600 chemicals or substances that might either be produced or used by various businesses located near their communities.

Mississippi Power’s generating units release some of the specified elements during the process of burning coal or natural gas to produce electricity. Some elements in coal, including metals such as barium, copper, zinc and chromium, are collected in the ash produced by combustion and remain on the plant sites. Other elements turn into aerosols when they’re burned and leave the plants’ stacks in minimal concentrations (parts per billion).

“TRI numbers are simply part of a reporting process,” said Kurt Brautigam, MPC spokesman. “They’re a direct reflection of the chemical content of the coal we burn, and they normally vary over time. It’s important to note, however, that EPA has determined that these emissions are not hazardous, and they are not regulated.”

For 2003, Plant Watson near Gulfport and Plant Daniel in Jackson County saw an increase of about 7.5 percent in total releases compared to the previous year.

“The numbers are slightly higher because we burned about 10 percent more coal than the previous year,” Brautigam said. “We use coal from various sources and of different chemical makeup, depending on what is available and economical.”

Total Mississippi Power TRI releases (in pounds)

1998 8,016,426

1999 10,908,331

2000 14,210,652

2001 6,658,156

2002 4,113,387

2003 4,420,891

Payment options suit customer needs

Mississippi Power knows its customers are not all the same—they all want choices that meet their personal needs. To better suit customers’ varying styles, there are several different ways people can pay their electric bills.

The newest and fastest growing method of payment is via the Internet. Electronically billed customers receive and pay their bill online. As of the beginning of the summer, more than 5,000 of Mississippi Power’s 193,000 customers had chosen e-Bill to pay their electric bills.

Another online service is Electronic Funds Transfer, in which the customer allows the amount of their monthly bill to be automatically drafted from a designated checking or savings account.

While many people are beginning to use online methods to pay their bills, most still prefer the traditional way of either making a personal visit to the payment office or simply paying with a check sent in the mail.

More than half of the company’s customers pay their bill at one of 30 local customer service offices located throughout its 23-county service area.

“Our customer base is changing, but not as fast in some areas as in others,” said Kurt Brautigam, company spokesman. “The electronic payment options are being used by customers who want the convenience of not having to write and mail a check, but we have many customers who still prefer going to a bill payment office. By providing these value-added services, we’re trying to cater to customers of all preferences.”

# # #