GULFPORT, Miss., June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Employees at Mississippi
Power's Plant Watson in Gulfport, Miss., recently completed all repairs to
the facility, bringing the plant back to full operational status. The
facility suffered significant damage due to flooding during Hurricane
Katrina last year.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020207/SOCOLOGO)
During the height of the storm, which cut a path straight through the
company's service territory, 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
that operate the plant's five units were affected.
Restoration efforts included inspecting, repairing and testing
thousands of switches and electronic connections, hundreds of relaying and
metering devices, 8,000 cables, 370 AC/DC motors and 43 pumps. The plant's
free standing combustion turbine also sustained damage and has been
repaired.
Company employees and outside contracting crews worked 24-hour days
after the storm and restored Unit 4, a 250-megawatt coal-fired unit, to
operational status within 46 days. Unit 5, a 500-megawatt coal-fired unit
that comprises nearly half of the plant's output, was returned to service
just before the end of the year. Repairs to the plant's three smaller
units, used primarily to meet summer peaking demand, were completed May 31.
"Despite facing one of the worst recovery situations in the company's
history, plant employees completed these repairs in record time and with no
significant accidents," said President and CEO Anthony Topazi. "This is an
exemplary accomplishment, especially in light of the personal losses so
many employees have also been dealing with."
Approximately ten percent of the plant's 200 employees totally lost
their homes to the storm. Many more suffered significant losses.
"Our employees worked countless long hours making personal sacrifices
to achieve this accomplishment," said Plant Watson Manager Sam Sumner. "In
addition to making the overall repairs, they performed major maintenance
outages this spring on Units 4 and 5, also without any recordable
accidents. That is superior performance."
Mississippi Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, serves customers in
23 southeast Mississippi counties. The company earned a 2006 Edison Award,
the electric utility industry's most prestigious honor, for restoration
efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
SOURCE Mississippi Power
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