Kemper Project delayed again at a cost of $33 million
The Kemper Project clean coal power plant will be delayed until Nov. 30 and cost an additional $33 million, according to a filing by Mississippi Power with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The $6.886 billion plant is designed to convert lignite coal mined on site into a natural gas-like substance called synthesis gas to fuel its electricity generating turbines. The turbines have been operational since August 2014, fueled by natural gas.
The company blamed the delay on the need to remove ash deposits from the bottom of one of the plant's two gasifiers – which heat the lignite coal to more than 1,800 degrees in order to convert it to syngas. Also, the company said it needed more time to bring the gasifiers up to sustained operation in order to test the systems that remove carbon dioxide and other byproducts from the gas stream before it goes to the turbines.
Of the $33 million, $5 million is to repair problems with Gasifier B and the coal feed and ash management systems and $28 million is for additional startup costs related to the delay.
The gasifiers were scheduled to go online at the end of this month. The company has manufactured syngas from both gasifiers – the first in July, the other in September – but neither time was it used to generate power because the associated gas cleanup systems that scrub carbon dioxide and toxic byproducts such as sulfuric acid and anhydrous ammonia from the gas feed are not operational.
The company said the next step is to continue operations with Gasifier A while restarting Gasifier B to support the production of clean syngas that can be used for electricity generation. The company also said if the facility isn't able to generate electricity from syngas by the end of October, further delays and cost increases are likely.
The company now has 14 consecutive months with a cost increase and any further delays could add to that total. Any further delays could add between $25 million and $35 million per month that the plant isn't online.
The independent monitoring firm AECOM – which was hired by the Public Service Commission to be the commission's eyes and ears on the site – predicted correctly that Mississippi Power wouldn't meet its announced start dates on Kemper. As early as its May report, the engineering firm predicted a likely date of December for the gasifiers and their associated systems to become operational. The company insisted the gasifiers would go online in September, then later said October.
Originally, Kemper was supposed to open in May 2014. It will be more than two years behind schedule when it comes online. The plant, according to the company's announcement in December 2006, was supposed to cost $1.8 billion.