It was a good month for Southern Company’s Kemper Country Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project. After years of cost estimate increases and delays, Southern Co. reported neither in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “The July 2016 [Public Service Commission] report was a good report for our customers and our company. There were no cost or schedule adjustments,” Southern Co. spokesman Jeff Shepard told GHG Daily Wednesday.
The project, a new-build, post-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 and CCS technology to produce carbon emissions roughly equal to that of natural gas. The CCS and IGCC portions of the plant are not yet online.
The project, which currently bears a price tag of $6.8 million, was initially billed at $2.4 billion and would have reached full operation in May 2014 under its original timeline. The plant is now expected to reach full operation by Oct. 31.
The new filing, which includes actions through the end of July 2016, sheds new light on the schedule for powering up the plant’s two gasifiers. Gasifier B operated on lignite more than 60 percent of the period between mid-July and late-August, at which time it was taken offline for “inspection and what is expected to be minor repairs and maintenance,” the filing says.
The company is now incorporating the known mechanical modifications from gasifier B to gasifier A, which is scheduled to begin producing syngas in coming weeks. If by the end of September, gasifier A starts producing syngas and the needed repairs are completed on gasifier B allowing it be restarted, the plant will be on track for full operation by Oct. 31, the report says. “If these milestones are not achieved by these dates, the October 31, 2016 expected in-service date and related cost estimate for the Kemper IGCC may require further revision,’ the document says.