KEMPER COUNTY ENERGY FACILITY

In February 2006, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a Cooperative Agreement to Southern Company Services under the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) Round 2 Program to provide financial support for the development and deployment of the Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIGTM) technology that is being utilized by the project. The project was originally to be located at the Orlando Utilities Commission's Stanton Energy Center in Florida. In December 2008, the project’s location was changed to Kemper County, Mississippi.  DOE is providing total cost share of $407 million with approximately $270 million in original financial assistance as part of Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) Round 2 to the project at this location, and an additional $137 million provided by DOE under Section 313 of the FY2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act. Kemper received 85% of the $160 million total reallocation of funds based project recipient cost share under the Section 313 of the FY2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act mandated reallocation of funds.

The Kemper County Energy Facility is a lignite-fueled integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) facility. The plant design incorporates the air-blown TRIG™ technology jointly developed by Southern Company, KBR, and DOE at the Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville, Alabama. Mississippi Power Company (MPC), a Southern Company subsidiary, will own and operate the plant. The facility will employ state-of-the-art emission controls to produce electricity from lignite in an efficient and environmentally friendly manner and will also assist MPC in achieving key strategic objectives of fuel and geographical diversity, and cost stability, while providing a reliable economic resource to meet customer needs.

Lignite reserves near the plant site owned by Mississippi Power Company and developed and mined by Liberty Fuels, a subsidiary of North American Coal Corporation, will supply the feedstock for the IGCC plant. The plant will have a peak net output capability of 582 MWe. The peak capacity will occur when using syngas in the combustion turbine coupled with natural gas firing in the heat recovery steam generator duct burners. During syngas-only operations, the plant will achieve a net generating capacity of 524 MWe. The facility will employ advanced emissions control equipment to produce marketable byproducts of ammonia, sulfuric acid, and carbon dioxide (CO2). Over 65 percent of the CO2 will be captured, making the Kemper County Energy Facility’s carbon emissions comparable to a natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant. The commercial operation date of the Kemper County IGCC plant is expected to be around the second half of 2016.

The estimated 3 million metric tons of CO2 per year captured from the Kemper County Energy Facility gasification process will be transported via pipeline to two off takers for use in enhanced oil recovery operations at depleted oil production fields in Mississippi.

The project is being constructed in Kemper County, Mississippi.  Project partners include Mississippi Power Company and KBR.

TIMELINE

DRAFT EIS ISSUED

In November 2009, the Department of Energy released the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Kemper County Energy Facility for public comment.

FINAL EIS ISSUED

On May 21, 2010, the Department of Energy released the final Environmental Impact Statement for the Kemper County Energy Facility for public comment.

RECORD OF DECISION ISSUED

On August 19, 2010, the Department of Energy issued the Record of Decision for the Kemper County Energy Facility.

GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on December 16, 2010.

DOE SECRETARY OF ENERGY AND INTERNATIONAL ENERGY OFFICIALS VISIT KEMPER

On November 8, 2013, Secretary Moniz and Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) energy officials toured the Kemper County Energy Facility under construction.

OPERATION ON NATURAL GAS ACHIEVED

The combined cycle unit was placed into commercial service on natural gas on August 9, 2014.

CURRENT STATUS

On June 28, 2017, Mississippi Power Co. announced the company is immediately suspending start-up and operations activities involving the lignite gasification portion of the Kemper County energy facility. The facility will continue to operate using natural gas pending the Mississippi Public Service Commission's decision on future operations. Mississippi Power stated that this is the appropriate step to manage costs given the economics of the project and the Commission's intent to establish a settlement docket to address Kemper-related matters including the future operation of the gasifier portion of the project.

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