Interested parties in the Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project will soon have an easier time accessing data on the project collected by independent monitors including AECOM and Power Engineers Burns and Roe. The Mississippi Public Service Commission announced Friday that it will begin posting online the monthly updates prepared by the monitors hired by the commission to observe and report on the Kemper project. The documents include discussions of issues with low cost estimates on the project, construction productivity, and project execution, according to a PSC release.
Previously, the documents were publicly available but could only be procured through a public records request. “We think it is important that the public see the process at work and see that their Commissioners are working for them. Better public access to information is one way to get that message across,” Sam Britton, Southern District commissioner, said in the release.
In addition to posting the reports, the PSC will also begin evaluating and lawfully unsealing currently confidential documents related to the project.
The Kemper project has been riddled with delays and cost overruns, and is currently more two years overdue and billions over budget. Originally billed at $2.4 billion, the facility now has an estimated price tag of $6.644 billion.
The project is scheduled to reach full operation in the third quarter of this year, though that date is subject to change and an updated schedule could be released early next month in project developer Mississippi Power’s monthly Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Customers have been receiving electricity generated at the facility using natural gas since August 2014, though the plant has yet to reach operation on coal. Once completed, the Kemper County Energy Facility will be the world’s first commercial-scale new-build coal-fired carbon capture and storage project.
