Dive Summary:
- Mississippi Power Co. has asked the state's Public Service Commission to determine if its spending on a Kemper County power plant has been prudent.
- Costs for the plant, as well as a lignite mine and carbon dioxide pipeline, have exceeded $4.3 billion, and if regulators decide the utility wasted money, they can prevent the company from charging its 186,000 ratepayers for certain costs that could be thrown out.
- A vote from regulators may not come until early 2014 despite a January agreement that set a July 24 vote deadline, and retired utility analyst Robert Burns says the review might all depend on what Mississippi Power knew when it made spending decisions.
From the article:
... Burns said the prudence reviews that he studied show wide variations, but on average only 5 percent of costs were excluded. That might not be as dramatic as some opponents hope for, but it could force the Southern Co. shareholders to absorb more than $200 million more in Kemper costs. The parent company already charged off $540 million in April, and it said earlier this month that it could have to swallow $160 million or more in additional overruns. ...
