Approaching full operation, Southern Co.’s Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project in Mississippi this week generated its first electricity using syngas produced in its gasifier. “After decades of research and years of hard work at the site, we are thrilled that the Kemper County energy facility, the world’s most advanced coal plant, has generated electricity using syngas,” Southern Chairman, President, and CEO Thomas Fanning said in a press release.
The project, a new-build, pre-combustion CCS facility near the city of Meridian, has been producing energy with natural gas for two years. Once fully operational, the plant will use Mississippi lignite, a low-rank brown coal, to produce electricity. It will employ a custom integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) system to create syngas and CCS technology to reduce the plant’s emissions to roughly that of natural gas.
The announced electricity production involved a mix of syngas and natural gas. “As part of the plant start-up process, electricity generation will continue to involve testing on syngas, natural gas or a combination of both as progress continues toward commercial operation,” the release says.
The project was initially billed at $2.4 billion and would have reached full operation in May 2014 under its original timeline. The project’s total estimated price tag is now more than $6.88 billion, according to a monthly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The latest filing also pushed back the project’s projected timeline for full operation from this month to November. The Southern Co. release says the project remains on schedule to reach that milestone next month. “The next major milestones are expected to include the production of electricity by the project’s second gasifier, operating both combustion turbines using all syngas, followed by complete integration of the project’s systems leading to full commercial operation,’ the company said.