KEMPER COUNTY, Miss. – Southern Co. is now planning to market and sell a new technology that will be used for the first time in the US at Mississippi Power’s new Kemper County coal plant.

That new technology is called Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG).  It was developed by Southern Co., (the parent company of Mississippi Power) and KBR under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy, and can support coal-based generation with carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions comparable to those of a natural gas plant, providing a viable solution for clean coal generation in the U.S. and around the world.

Here’s how it will work at the Kemper County plant, all the lignite adjacent to the plant site will be gasified to create energy for you for the next 40 years.  But, Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley says Mississippi is being short changed.  “Mississippi will receive zero royalties for being the bankers and the experimental lab for this technology that they are going to go out and sale.”

Presley says it’s not fair to Mississippi Power customers who are already shouldering rate increases to pay for the construction of the plant.