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ississippi Power Con, •-<iy >,t -V J 1_ Ban operating more1 !Vn .'<0 years ago, on January 1, HV25, providing electricity in 13" f'DTinnDTTTies From Bay St. Louis to Ocean Springs. Today, in its golden anniversary year, the in-vestor-owncd utility serves some 146,000 customers in 122 communities located within 9.3 southeast Mississippi counties.
ITow Mississippi Power came into being, !he reason for its existence, what it’s Joing, and what it hopes to do are a story of the “new spirit” or the people of Mississippi in the 1920’s.
In J925, a group oF public-spirited business and civic leaders oF Mississippi held a meeting to determine how hydro-electric power could be obtained for their state. They wanted to do something For Mississippi, and they realized that it could never be prosperous until new industries, with many workers, could be established to turn its raw materials into Finished products at home and to provide a local market For its agricultural products. They knew that new industries couldn’t be attracted to Mississippi until an abundance oF low-
By Vicki Hicks • Photos from Mississippi Power Com
cost electric power was available.
Out oF this meeting came the organization oF Mississippi Power Company — to make hydro-power available throughout Mississippi From the great water powers lying to the east, the only source oF hydropower within economical transmission distance oF practically the entire state.
When operations began in 1925, the limited electric service available in the service area was From small isolated plants, generally overloaded, inadequate and in-eFFicient. Rates were high, ‘running up to 25 cents per kilowatt-hour, service was oFten rendered only at night, and many communities in the area had no electric service at all.
Mississippi Power immediately began developing a modern electric system by acquiring and modernizing existing operations and constructing new Facilities in communities previously without electric service.
A new steam turbine electric generator was promptly installed. The old seashore
MODERN TRANSPORTATION - This bus line, which ran along the Coast in the kite 1920's was typical of many of Mississippi Power Company’s "side-line” operations — such as meat curing plants, ice cream parlors, ice plants and trolley lines
—	in its early years.
MODERN KITCHEN APPLIANCES -The sales floor at Mississippi Power Company’s Gulfport office displayed many new and modern conveniences — for 1926, that is.
SITE OF GENERAL OFFICE BUILDING — Mississippi Power Company’s old Gulfport steam plant teas once located on the site of the new general office building on the beach at 30th Avenue and U.S. Highway 90.