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Public Service Commission certifies Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power fuel audits to legislature
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Summary
The Mississippi Public Service Commission voted to certify annual financial and procurement fuel audits for Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power and will provide the reports to the state legislature; auditors reported no material findings on the financial schedules, while procurement reports contained several recommendations.
The Mississippi Public Service Commission on March 18 certified annual financial and procurement fuel audits for Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power and directed staff to transmit the auditors' reports to the state legislature.
The vote fulfills the commission's statutory duty to confirm that required fuel audits were performed in accordance with Mississippi Code Annotated §77-3-42 and to provide those reports to lawmakers. Staff said the certification is the first step in a two-step process that will be followed by staff review of auditor recommendations and company responses.
Auditors summarized their findings during the open meeting. Joe Green, financial auditor representing Horn, said Horn "issued our report in December, with no findings" and noted the report references approximately $100,000 in historically reported, "questionable costs" related to fuel handling. "There were no uncorrected misstatements," Green said.
Marie Fagan, procurement auditor with London Economics, summarized the procurement review for Entergy Mississippi and said the auditors found the utility's processes "thorough and professional" but reported eight findings tied to recommendations. Fagan said the procurement work covered organization and staffing, plant operations, MISO participation, coal procurement and inventory management, nuclear fuel procurement, and the Grand Gulf purchase power agreement. She said recommendations included following up on deactivation planning for the Independence plant, improving capacity-factor projections, and addressing performance shortfalls and coal-burn forecasting errors.
Will Crawford, partner at Forvis, presented the financial audit for Mississippi Power and said Forvis issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on Mississippi Power's fuel clause schedules. "We identified no issues, no question calls, no concerns, material or immaterial," Crawford said, and noted his firm also issued a governance/management letter with no internal-control matters reported.
Vincent Musko, partner at Bates White, summarized the procurement review of Mississippi Power and said his team "identified no major concerns" but offered recommendations including enhanced natural-gas contracting practices, improved reporting requirements for generation data, and better recordkeeping for units operated at elevated minimum generation levels.
Commission staff said the certification confirms the audits satisfied statutory requirements and that staff will meet with company representatives to evaluate auditor recommendations and prepare a supplemental order directing any required action plans. The commission voted to certify the audits and transmit the reports to the legislature.
The certification vote was unanimous, and staff will proceed with the follow-up review and any supplemental orders that arise from staff and company responses to the auditors' recommendations.
