Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
12/12/2014
Emile “Chip” Troxclair has been named to lead the Kemper Country Energy Facility to commercial operation as the Vice President of Kemper development, Mississippi Power announced late this week. In his new role, Troxclair will oversee the world’s first integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant with carbon capture and storage technology. Once completed, the facility will utilize Mississippi lignite, a low-rank brown coal, to produce electricity. The plant 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. “As a proven leader in managing teams and gasification projects, he understands the complexities associated with IGCC startup and first-of-a-kind projects. Chip will bring that experience to Mississippi Power and lead the team responsible for bringing Kemper online to provide clean, safe and reliable energy to our customers for decades to come,” Mississippi Power President and CEO Ed Holland said a press release.
Troxclair has more than 34 years of experience in the industry, much of that with a focus on gasification technologies. Prior to taking his new post, Troxclair served as vice president for gasification technology at CB&I. He also brings experience in the design and startup of gasification facilities including Dow Chemical’s first coal gasification facility and has also worked previously as plant manager for Destec Energy’s Wabash River IGCC power plant.
The Kemper project has been plagued by cost overruns and delays with a final price tag now sitting at $6.1 billion and full operations expected to begin in 2016. The project has been under construction since May 2010 and had been initially estimated to cost $2.4 billion. Portions of the plant are currently on-line, but the gasification and carbon capture portions of the plant have yet to be placed in service. The last reported overrun totaled approximately $330 million in additional costs related to “to the extension of the project schedule … as well as start-up and operational readiness activities.” Overruns comprised of $61 million were reported in May and were attributed 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 were also announced at that time.
