Hearing delayed on Mississippi Power Kemper costs

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Upcoming hearings on whether Mississippi Power Co. should be able to get customers to pay for its Kemper County power plant have been postponed.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission Thursday delayed prudency hearings from May 19 until at least August. Those hearings are supposed to examine the more than $2.75 billion that Mississippi Power, a unit of the Atlanta-based Southern Co., spend through March 31, 2013. Another prudency hearing for remaining costs would follow after the plant goes into commercial operation, scheduled before year’s end.