The long-delayed Kemper County Energy Facility has begun producing syngas from lignite coal, developer Mississippi Power announced Friday. “Producing syngas from Mississippi’s own abundant natural resource – lignite – should be encouraging to our customers, communities and energy companies around the world. This proves that Kemper’s technology can provide a way forward for coal and puts us a step closer to full plant operation,” Mississippi Power President and CEO Anthony Wilson said in a release.
The plant, designed to be a new-build, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal-fired power plant, has been producing electricity with natural gas since August 2014.
Once fully operational, the plant will use Mississippi lignite, a low-rank brown coal, to produce electricity. It will employ a custom IGCC system and CCS technology to produce electricity from the coal with carbon emissions roughly equal to that of natural gas.
“The successful production of syngas is an important step in the systematic process of achieving the facility’s full commercial operation. During the coming weeks, the Kemper project team also will be focused on starting up and integrating various systems needed to achieve the next major milestone – using syngas to produce electricity at the plant,” the release explains.
The Kemper project has been the subject of harsh criticism lately. A scathing article containing allegations of potential fraud appeared in The New York Times July 5, just days after the company announced that its price estimate for the project has once again crept up.
The projected price tag for the project now sits at $6.75 billion after a new budget overage of $9.8 million, the company reported the monthly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The project was initially billed at $2.4 billion. The price increase is “related to operational readiness and challenges in start-up and commissioning activities,” according to the filing.
Regardless of the ever-increasing estimated cost, the company holds that the plant will reach full operation by the third quarter of this year. Extending the in-service date beyond Aug. 31 is estimated to result in additional costs of roughly $25 million to $35 million per month to cover labor, materials, fuel, and “operational resources” needed for startup and commissioning.
