Kemper County IGCC Business Opportunity Fair seeks qualified companies

GULFPORT, MS – Mississippi Power will host a Business Opportunity Fair in an effort to find qualified companies to build and operate its proposed Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant, which could come online in Kemper County as early as 2014.

Interested contractors and vendors are invited to come on Wednesday, November 4, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at East Mississippi Community College’s Keyes Currie Coliseum in Scooba, Mississippi.



A general information presentation will address the potential opportunities and what it takes to be a qualified contractor on the ground floor of building this cutting-edge power plant that converts local, Kemper County lignite into much-needed, low-cost energy and economic opportunities.



Fair attendees can visit information booths and visit one-on-one with representatives from the Mississippi Human Resources/WIN Job Center and Mississippi Power’s Supply Chain Management department. Information at the booths will cover initial construction needs, including Clearing and Grubbing, Civil Engineering, Mechanical and Fabrication, Electrical, and Services, as well as future operational needs.



Mississippi Power, headquartered in Gulfport, MS, provides retail and wholesale electric service to approximately 200,000 customers in 23 counties from the Gulf Coast to Meridian. The company owns or has significant ownership interests in six generating facilities with net dependable generating capacity of 3,166 megawatts. Electricity is sent across 8,371 miles of transmission and distribution lines to retail customers principally in Gulfport, Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Meridian, Pascagoula, Columbia, Laurel, Waveland, Lucedale and Picayune.



Large wholesale customers include six electric cooperatives – Coast EPA, Singing River EPA, Southern Pine EPA, Dixie EPA, Pearl River EPA and East Mississippi EPA – the City of Collins and South Mississippi Electric Power Authority. Large retail customers include the following: the region’s United States military installations – Keesler Air Force Base and Naval Construction Battalion Center (Seabee Base); the University of Southern Mississippi; NASA Stennis Space Center; oil and gas infrastructure, including a refinery; multiple foundries and shipbuilders; the Mississippi National Guard’s Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center near Hattiesburg and the Mississippi Air National Guard in Meridian.

Mississippi Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO), employs 1,300 Mississippi residents. In 2008, Mississippi Power paid $115 million in federal, state and local taxes. Southern Company stock is held by nearly 3,000 Mississippi residents.