Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
8/22/2014
Mississippi Power’s Kemper County Energy Facility’s combined cycle was put into commercial operation using natural gas as fuel last week. Once completed, the facility will utilize Mississippi lignite, a low-rank brown coal, to produce electricity. The plant will employ a custom gasification system and carbon capture and storage technology to produce electricity from the coal with carbon emissions roughly equal to that of natural gas. The plant was scheduled to reach full operation this year, but delays due to weather, labor and other complications have pushed the expected date of full operation back to the first half of 2015. This is the second major milestone the plant has reached this month, according to a Mississippi Power release, with pressure testing of the facility’s two gasifiers occurring earlier.
The plant remains on track to reach full operation next year, Mississippi Power spokesperson Natalie Campen told GHG Monitor. “Progress continues onsite with approximately 3,000 workers focused on safely reaching the next milestone which is the heat-up of the first gasifier,” Campen said. “The balance of the Kemper project which consists of the gasifier, gas clean-up, lignite delivery facilities and CO2 pipeline is currently projected to be placed in service in second quarter 2015.” The gasifiers are a key component of the plant and have undergone extensive testing to ensure they are ready for full operation. “The gasifiers at Kemper are the core of the integrated gasification process, which will be used to convert lignite into synthesis gas. The use of Mississippi lignite adds fuel diversity at low costs and stable prices for Mississippi Power’s customers,” the release says.
The Kemper project has been plagued by cost overruns and delays, the most recent announced in May. Overruns at Kemper at that time comprised of $61 million tied to construction issues which were identified as decreases in construction labor productivity on the project due in large part to adverse weather, unexpected excessive craft labor turn-over and unanticipated installation inefficiencies; and $135 million related to the delay of the projected in-service date. This is in addition to the $184 million in overruns reported previously, resulting in $380 million in total overruns thus far this year. The company also announced it will lose up to $150 million in tax benefits due to the delay of full operations. These additional incurred costs bring the total price tag of the project to $5.5 billion.
