Kansas City- based Aquila Energy will begin construction in the spring on a $130 million, 320,000-kilowatt power plant and transmission line in Clarksdale.
“It’s the single largest investment that’s ever been made in Coahoma County,” says Ron Hudson, executive director of the Clarksdale Chamber of Commerce and Coahoma Industrial Foundation. “A project of that size will benefit the community with jobs, an increased tax base, and will provide an additional incentive to bring in other industries.”
Approximately 150 workers will be employed during the construction phase of the gas-fired power plant. Groundbreaking activities are slated for May 1. When the plant is operational in June 2002, about six permanent employees, including engineer technicians and laborers, will be on staff at the Clarksdale facility, said Al Butkus, vice president of corporate communications for Aquila Energy.
“We chose Clarksdale because there’s dramatic growth in the southern region for electricity,” said Butkus. “Just like the rest of the U.S. economy, the demand in the South is increasing. It’s a perfect location for us because it interconnects with our networks throughout the south.”
In 1999, Aquila Energy, a subsidiary of UtiliCorp United Inc. (NYSE: UCU), was the second-largest wholesaler of electric power and third-largest wholesaler of natural gas in North America.
As of September 30, 2000, UtiliCorp had total assets of $10 billion and annual sales of $23 billion. Aquila, one of the fastest growing wholesale energy companies in the U.S., with sales and marketing operations in Kansas City, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Calgary and other locations in North America, recently expanded into Western Europe, and is currently operating in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and the Scandinavian region.
The Clarksdale Chamber of Commerce and Coahoma Industrial Foundation were instrumental in luring Aquila to the Mississippi Delta by aggressively marketing the area’s unique characteristics.
“We sent out four RFPs (Requests For Proposals) and Aquila was one that answered us,” Hudson said. “They had a long list of requirements, and we had unique circumstances, such as the existence of gas lines crossing in this area, an abundance of underground water, the ability to discharge water, and plants fired with natural gas. A major factor involved was the fact that the city owns Clarksdale Public Utilities, which has the capability of generating 62,000 kilowatts of power and has a black start capability. But all said, Marvin Carraway is a major reason they’re coming here, simply because of his expertise.”
Carraway, general manager of Clarksdale Public Utilities (CPU) since June 1971, said a drawing card was the municipal utility, consumer-owned and city-operated since 1900, that features a combustion turbine, or black start unit, in the generating plant.
“In layman’s terms, if you have a complete power outage and everything is dark, you can go out there with a battery pack and a diesel engine, crank the unit up, and the system can be up and loaded in less than ten minutes, depending on the temperature and weather conditions,” he said. “We test the black start unit once a month with simulated black conditions by killing the power to the control system and letting it come up on its own power off the battery pack.”
The Coahoma Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the plan during a special meeting last December. According to the agreement, Aquila Energy will build, own, and operate the new plant and substation for 30 years. Aquila’s payments for power purchased from Clarksdale will fund the plant and transmission lines.
Mississippi Delta Energy Agency (MDEA), a newly created organization, will build and own a new transmission line to a 230,000-volt transmission line owned by Entergy Mississippi. The line is located north of Lula and will facilitate the delivery of power to the Entergy transmission system.
“Everyone in the community who was in a position to help land this project did so,” said Clarksdale Mayor Richard Webster.
The plant, which will be located just south of 20th Street, across from CPU’s Lewis Wilkins plant, will consist of four combustion turbines with a minimal total output of 320,000 kilowatts. All four turbines will be brought in by rail.
“I have been especially pleased with the work of the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors in their efforts to insure the necessary right-of-way was made available for this project and that we will have the capabilities to receive equipment by rail for the construction of this plant,” said Hugh Jack Stubbs, administrator for Coahoma County. DBJ

Cutting funds for workforce training bad for Delta
The time has come for all of us to get a very important message out to the legislature. That message is: Do not cut funding for Mississippi’s workforce training programs.
The Legislative Budget Office has issued a proposal which, essentially, would sound a death knell to the critical workforce training programs now in place in Mississippi. Not only that, but our fine junior and community colleges would suffer greatly as well. The numbers are staggering: The LBO wants to reduce the funding available for workforce projects from $14 million this year to $6 million – that’s right – $6 million for fiscal year 2002. You do the math. If the LBO has its way, our state would see a reduction of $8 million in workforce training funding, resulting in a 57% decrease. Such a result would be devastating to the Delta.
Time and time again, I hear from business leaders and government officials in Mississippi that the number one deciding factor in any given company even looking at locating to our state is workforce training. Toward that end, our community colleges have done outstanding work in keeping the employees of major companies in the Delta, and the state, educated and familiar with the never-ending changes that take place in today’s economy. These colleges and their programs have also drawn favorable attention from many out-of-state concerns looking at our state for a facility. Now, with the LBO’s proposal, such education and training programs would be slashed to the bone, leaving many local companies high and dry and the chance of any new Nissan-esque arrivals almost nil.
Since the Workforce Training Act was passed in 1994, countless workers have received top-notch, state-supported training. Such training leads to higher wages which leads to a higher quality of life which, in turn, leads to higher tax revenues. It makes perfect sense. Workforce training WORKS. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000 some 139,681 workers received workforce training in Mississippi. If the current proposal to cut funds is passed, nearly 80,000 fewer workers would be trained in our state next year. This, I submit, is unacceptable.
Moreover, our community colleges must have their budgets maintained in order for them to continue to provide both a general education and workforce training to our citizens. It is a fact that in Mississippi community colleges are the major conduits for preparing individuals to enter the workforce. If the budget cuts become a reality, a massive reduction of services will take place across the board for all the community colleges. Think of the soon-to-open Workforce Training Center in Indianola. WILL it be soon to open? Its status hinges strongly on this proposed budget cut.
We in the Delta have to fight hard enough for economic survival as it. These proposed budget cuts will cut our legs out from under us. More than any other region in the state, the Delta needs adequately funded workforce training. Our future without it is almost too grim to think about, and yet we are being asked to face just such a future. The cuts must not be allowed to happen. Contact your legislator. The message must be heard that workforce training cannot be capriciously left out to die, as seems to be the case.
We’re not talking about corporate welfare here, either. Industries in the Delta and elsewhere ante up plenty of money for these programs. But the state must show a commitment to education, especially this critical type of economic education, that is now being tampered with, and in so doing show businesses that it supports their efforts.
Of course, the bigger industries and companies will not be hit as hard if these cuts take place. Who will be hit incredible hard will be the smaller industries that are in abundance in the Delta. How will they survive? We cannot sit on our hands and let this cut take place. Take action. Do it for your community, as well as for yourself, because believe me: we all will be affected one way or the other.
Let’s keep workforce training adequately funded so it will be for the better. DBJ