FRENCH CAMP, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi's largest private utility is buying a natural gas-fired electrical generating plant.

  

Entergy Mississippi, a unit of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., announced this week that it will buy the Choctaw Energy Facility in French Camp from bankrupt GenOn Energy of Princeton, New Jersey, for $314 million.

  

Entergy says it's paying less than a new, comparable facility would cost. Entergy expects to complete the purchase next year, after regulatory approvals.

  

Spokeswoman Mara Hartmann says Entergy hasn't calculated how much the purchase will increase customer rates, but says it will be "relatively small."

  

Hartmann says the purchase of the 810-megawatt plant will allow Entergy to close older, less efficient plants, but didn't say which plants Entergy would close. The company has recently closed 700 megawatts of generation at Vicksburg and Jackson plants.

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