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The Mississippi Public Service Commission voted 3-0 Tuesday morning to levy $5.7 million in fines for four telemarketers for violating the state’s No Call Law.

It’s the largest fine since the law took effect in 2003.

Two companies and an individual, all based in Arizona, were hit with fines totaling $5.7 million. Press releases from Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley and Southern District Commissioner Leonard Bentz said the telemarketers had been the target of nearly 400 complaints ranging from failing to register with the PSC to calling people on the No Call List to calling outside appointed times.

“I intend to collect this debt by any means possible, whether it is by fines, or by taking any assets,” Bentz said.

Said Presley: “We are serious about enforcing the Mississippi Do-Not-Call law and protecting the people of our state from unwanted telemarketing calls.”

To compare, in May the Commission fined a California man and his companies $945,000 for 189 violations of the No Call Law. Last month, a single violation cost a Nevada company $20,000.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission voted 3-0 Tuesday morning to examine the formulas used to calculate return on equity for Mississippi Power Co. and for Entergy Mississippi.

Return on equity (ROE) is the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholders equity. It is used to measure a corporation’s profitability by revealing how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested in, for example, things like new facilities and new infrastructure.

For utility companies, ROE is set as a percentage. The latest figures the PSC has approved for Entergy’s ROE is 11.63 percent; for MPC that figure is 10.62 percent. That’s about in the middle range for comparably sized utilities in the Southeast.

Each company uses multiple formulas to calculate its ROE, and takes the average of those formulas. For instance, MPC uses three formulas to calculate its ROE. The results generally end with a ROE of somewhere between 9 percent and 11 percent.

Commissioners voted Tuesday to hire consultants and to begin a series of hearings designed to examine the formulas. If the PSC decides it wants to change anything, it will have to be done in an entirely separate docket.

The hearings will likely last several months. It was unclear Tuesday if the first hearing would be a part of the regular meeting scheduled for September 11.

Mississippi Power is now 0-2 when it comes to collecting money to pay for its Kemper County coal plant.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission in June denied a 13 percent rate increase that would have generated about $58 million. The company quickly appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which affirmed the PSC’s ruling Tuesday afternoon. The court voted 8-0 to deny the rate increase. Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. did not participate.

Public service commissioners said in their denial that they would take no action on rate increases until litigation surrounding the plant had concluded. The Sierra Club has the  plant — which the group contends is an expensive and  unnecessary environmental hazard — before a Harrison County chancellor. This is the second legal challenge the Sierra Club has mounted against the facility.

CLARIFICATION AND UPDATE: The Court ruled Tuesday that the company could not raise rates while it appeals the PSC’s rate denial. The appeal itself is still pending. Also, Mississippi Power has issued a statement. Here it is, verbatim:

“While we certainly respect the actions of the state Supreme Court, we view their decision on our motion to grant interim rates as a loss for our customers that will result in increased costs related to the Kemper plant,” said spokesperson Jeff Shepard. “We anxiously await the Court’s decision on our appeal. Our goal, as always, is to do what is in the best interest of our customers while maintaining reliable and safe electric service.”

Moody’s Investor Service late last week placed Mississippi Power Co.’s ratings on review for downgrade.

It’s the second rating agency in two weeks to either downgrade the company’s credit rating or consider doing so. On July 3 Fitch Ratings downgraded MCP from “A” to A-.” Fitch also revised the company’s rating outlook from “stable” to “negative.”

Moody’s does not sound prepared to go that far, at least not yet. In a press release, Moody’s said it would keep Southern Co.’s ratings outlook stable, and that the downgrade review would not result in MPC’s rating dropping more than one notch from its current rating of “A2.”

Like Fitch, Moody’s said the company’s credit rating likely would not completely recover until the Kemper County coal plant started commercial operation, which is scheduled for May 2014. Both agencies cited decreased cash flow as one of the main drivers of their decision.

Cash flow, company officials have said, will suffer until cost recovery is allowed for the Kemper facility. On June 22, public service commissioners voted 3-0 not to consider rate increases tied to the coal plant until the Mississippi Supreme Court has its say on the Sierra Club’s latest challenge to it.

A few hours after another overrun for its Kemper County coal plant was revealed, Mississippi Power Co. said Monday it was appealing the Public Service Commission’s decision not to act on rate increase requests until the litigation surrounding the facility is finished.

The company appealed the PSC’s order to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

On June 22, commissioners voted 3-0 to deny a 13 percent rate increase the company wanted to employ to help pay for the Kemper plant. The increase would have generated about $58 million. As part of the denial, commissioners said they would not rule on any rate increase requests until the state’s high court had its say on the Sierra Club’s latest legal challenge to the facility. The environmental advocacy organization has opposed the plant from the jump, calling it expensive and unnecessary.

Mississippi Power’s appeal includes a motion for interim rate relief, according to a company release. Company officials have said the PSC’s denial could potentially preclude the recovery of construction costs until after the facility is completed, due to a possibly lengthy litigation timeline.

“The collection of interest costs for the plant during construction will accomplish two important objectives,” Moses Feagin, vice president and chief financial officer, said in the release. “One, to lower the overall cost of the plant for our customers, and two, to reduce the potential rate shock they would have otherwise experienced.”

Last week, Fitch Ratings downgraded MPC’s credit rating from “A” to “A-.” The ratings agency also revised the company’s rating outlook from “stable” to “negative.”

The Kemper coal plant’s Independent Monitors’ Report for the period through the end of May shows the project has crept closer to the $2.88 billion cap the Public Service Commission imposed on it.

Mississippi Power Co. now estimates that the cost to build the lignite coal-fired generation facility will reach $2.822 billion. It’s the second report in a row that lists an overrun. The report for the period through the end of April estimated construction costs at $2.76 billion.

MPC officials originally estimated that they could build the plant for $2.4 billion. The latest  report exceeds that figure by $422 million.

In late June, commissioners voted 3-0 to wait until the Mississippi Supreme Court has its final say on litigation related to the project to take any action on proposed rate increases MPC hopes to use to pay for the plant.

Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley intends to challenge the constitutionality of a new law that removes the “carrier of last resort” mandate from AT&T and other layers of oversight from phone companies operating in Mississippi.

Presley, the Commission’s lone Democrat, said in an interview Monday that he sees the potential for rural customers to have their landline phone service eliminated, now that AT&T is no longer mandated by law to provide service to those areas. Presley also said the law’s removing single-line phone service rates from PSC jurisdiction violates the Mississippi Constitution.

Specifically, Presley cites Article 7, Section 186, which requires the Legislature to pass laws that allow for the “supervision” of telephone companies, among others, either by a commission or other entity.

“I intend to challenge this on behalf of little communities like Randolph and Dennis and Dumas – little places where customers have been paying a phone bill all these years, and they don’t deserve to have the rug jerked out from under them or have to pay out the nose is this bill stands,” Presley said.

Presley, who is challenging the bill as a private citizen and not in his capacity as a public service commissioner, said he hopes to file court papers in Hinds County Circuit Court either late this week or early next week.

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday downgraded Mississippi Power Co.’s Issuer Default  from “A” to A-.”

Fitch also revised the company’s rating outlook from “stable” to “negative.”

The rating agency said the downgrades were in response to the Mississippi Public Service Commission’s order from late June in which commissioners denied a revenue increase the company had requested in connection with the Kemper County coal plant. MPC officials testified at a hearing that in order to raise about $58 million to apply toward the plant, customer rates would need to increase by 13 percent.

In denying the rate increase, commissioners said they would take no action on rate increases associated with the Kemper facility until the Mississippi Supreme Court has its say on litigation surround it. The Sierra Club currently has the issue before a Harrison County chancellor for the second time.

No matter the outcome at the chancery court level, it’s expected to reach the state’s high court again.

Fitch also expressed concern with the 15 percent cost overrun MPC revealed to monitors in May. Currently, the plant’s projected cost sits at $2.76 billion, 15 percent more than the original estimate of $2.4 billion.

“Fitch’s financial analysis indicates that if the project becomes operational within the currently projected capital costs and schedule, and based on the assumption that the MPSC authorizes a timely recovery of both capital and operating costs, Mississippi Power’s credit metrics are expected to revert to Fitch’s guideline ratios of a low risk ‘A-’ rated utility company by 2015,” Fitch said in a press release. “Until then, however, Fitch expects Mississippi Power’s credit metrics to remain considerably weak.”

Mississippi  Power Co. announced late Friday afternoon that the Kemper county coal plant’s costs are close to butting up against the $2.88 billion cap the Public Service Commission imposed on the project.

A company press release says the news was revealed during a meeting with independent monitors. It does not say how far along construction is. It also does not say when the meeting in which the cost information was revealed took place. There was a meeting set for early May between monitors and the company to address the project’s contingency being close to depletion.

The plant’s latest figures would have been included in the independent monitor’s June report. The monthly reports have not been made readily available to the public as far as being posted on the PSC website like the orders and various other filings  associated with the project have been.  The Mississippi Business Journal filed an open records request on June 1 for the June report.

The release also does not say how far along construction is. The PSC voted 2-1 — Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley was the dissenting vote — April 24 to reissue Kemper’s certificate. Part of the order granting that certificate said that monitors and company officials would meet in early May to discuss the dwindling contingency and other matters.

Here’s the press release, verbatim:

Mississippi Power, in its monthly meeting with the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) Independent Construction Monitors, reports the Kemper plant construction is progressing on schedule and continues to be the best generation option for customers. The plant will be on line May 2014 and immediately begin saving customers on fuel costs.

The construction costs are currently projected to be approximately $2.76 billion or 15 percent above the original construction estimate prepared in 2009. The PSC established a cost cap of $2.88 billion for plant construction.

 Mississippi Power will deliver additional economic value for the Project from increased byproduct sales, such as CO_2, and savings from lower financing costs. Because of these benefits to customers, the new estimate will not increase the rate impact of Kemper.

 “We are committed to bringing the Kemper Project on line, within the cost cap, to provide clean, safe and reliable energy to our customers,” said Cindy Duvall, company spokeswoman. “We work every day to find ways to bring value to our customers while preparing to meet their future energy needs.”

 Mississippi Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, serves approximately 188,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties.

Mississippi Power Co.’s Kemper County plant isn’t the only coal-fired generation facility the Sierra Club has fought recently.

In Indiana, Duke Energy is building an integrated gasification combined cycle plant that will use bituminous coal, which sits a little deeper in the ground than lignite, which is abundant in East Mississippi and will serve as the main fuel source for the Kemper plant.

The company is catching it from a number of consumer groups, to go with the Sierra Club.

Duke Energy recently settled a round of litigation sparked by who would pay for the plant, the company or its ratepayers. Much of the hand-wringing had to do with who would foot the bill for $920 million in cost overruns on the roughly $3 billion project.

The settlement terms spelled out the rate impact for Duke customers: Electricity bills would go up 14.5 percent as the plant’s costs (at least some of them) were passed through. Various media reports in Indiana said that without the settlement, ratepayers’ bills would go up 22 percent.

Why that’s interesting is lignite coal is cheaper to recover, because its beds are generally closer to the surface than those of traditional coals like bituminous, making it easier to mine. The Kemper plant will use lignite, and like the Indiana plant, its costs — up to $2.88 billion — will be passed through to Mississippi Power ratepayers. It’s worth noting, though, that the ratepayer cost cap for the Indiana plant is $2.59 billion, about $300 million less than the Kemper facility. A really good overview of the plant’s finances can be found here.

The April 24 order the Mississippi Public Service Commission issued granting a new certificate of public convenience and necessity for the Kemper plant said rate increases would peak at 30 percent in 2014, when the facility is scheduled to start commercial operation, before declining as Mississippi Power pays off the plant’s debt. That figure was arrived at after months of proceedings before the plant was approved, litigated and approved again last week.

The 30 percent number differs from documents MPC filed with the PSC in 2009, in response to a set of data requests from Florida-based Entegra, which wanted to know how the plant would affect power bills in South Mississippi. Mississippi Power filed the information confidentially, but the Mississippi Business Journal obtained it via an open records request in 2010.

The rate impact data MPC filed then said hikes would be a touch more than 45 percent. That number has been disputed recently, most vehemently by Southern District Commissioner Leonard Bentz, whose territory includes the vast majority of Mississippi Power’s 186,000 customers.