Mississippi Power has revised the in-service date for its Kemper County IGCC power plant to 31 December, saying that a further month was needed for a maintenance outage on gasifier A to make improvements to the ash removal systems.
During the outage for gasifier A, the company plans to bring gasifier B online in order to implement necessary testing ahead of the production of electricity with syngas.
The revised schedule reflects the time expected to achieve electricity on gasifier B, complete outage activities and resume electricity production on gasifier A, as well as to complete the integration of all systems necessary for both combustion turbines to simultaneously generate electricity with syngas, says Mississippi Power.
The company also revised its cost estimate subject to the cost cap for the Kemper project – since the last monthly report to the state Public Service Commission – to include an additional $25 million related to the schedule extension. All of those costs will be paid by Southern Company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power, the companies say.
The lignite fuelled 582 MWe plant has experienced substantial delays and cost overruns – with costs about double original estimates – but it is the first plant to employ TRIG (Transport Integrated Gasification) IGCC technology at large scale, and will also be capable of 65% carbon dioxide capture.
Construction was initially approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission in 2010.
