Kemper Project
Kemper Project | |
---|---|
Official name | Kemper County energy facility |
Country | United States |
Location | Kemper County, Mississippi |
Coordinates | 32°39′4.45″N 88°45′32.5″W / 32.6512361°N 88.759028°W |
Status | Operational |
Construction began | June 3, 2010 |
Construction cost | $6.7 billion[1] |
Owner(s) |
|
Thermal power station | |
Primary fuel | Natural gas |
Power generation | |
Units under const. | 582-megawatt |
Nameplate capacity | 582-megawatt electric |
External links | |
Website | Official website |
The Kemper Project, also called the Kemper County energy facility or Plant Ratcliffe, is a natural gas-fired electrical generating station currently under construction in
Project management problems had been noted at the Kemper Project.[4] The plant was supposed to be in service by May 2014, at a cost of $2.4 billion. As of June 2017, the project was still not in service, and the cost had increased to $7.5 billion.[7] According to a Sierra Club analysis, Kemper is the most expensive power plant ever built, based on its generating capacity.[8] In June 2017, Southern Company and Mississippi Power announced that the Kemper project would switch to burning only natural gas in an effort to manage costs.[9]
Background
Mississippi Power intended the Kemper Project to produce
On June 3, 2010, the Mississippi Public Service Commission certified the project and the ground-breaking ceremony took place.[14] Governor Haley Barbour was present.[15]
Timeline
This section is in prose. is available. (March 2018) |
- 2008: Conceptual design initiated
- 2010: Mississippi Public Service Commission approves project
- 2010: Construction begins
- 2011: Building foundation begins
- 2012: Above ground construction started
- 2013
- 2014
- July:
- July: Combined cycle unit responsible for generating electricity successfully tested[19]
- August: Combined cycle unit in commercial operation and available to serve customers. Mississippi Power identified this milestone as the most significant to date.[20]
- October: Delays postpone in-service date to first half of 2016, and increase estimated cost to $6.1 billion.[21]
- December: 48 "steam blows" successfully completed. Steam blow is the process of blowing steam through pipes to ensure that they are clean, tight, and leak free.[22]
- 2015
- March: First fire of gasifiers successfully completed. The gasifiers, the centerpiece of the project, are designed to convert lignite coal to synthetic gas, or syngas, for use in power generation.[23]
- May: The South Mississippi Electric Power Association decided not to purchase a 15 percent interest in the Kemper Project.[2]
- September: Mississippi Power adjusted scheduled completion to a date after April 19, 2016. Because of this delay, the company will be required to pay back $234 million in investment tax credits to the Internal Revenue Service.[24]
- 2016
- March: Southern Co. reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the cost of the Kemper Project had increased due to "repairs and modifications". The updated cost of the project was $6.6 billion.[25]
- July: First of two gasifiers produces syngas.[26]
- September: Second of two gasifiers produces syngas.[27]
- October: Plant produces electricity using syngas in first of two gasifiers.[28]
- 2017
- March: Southern Co. discovered leaks that will cause it to miss scheduled mid-March completion of the project.[29]
- June: Kemper power plant suspends coal gasification.[9] [needs update]
- 2021, October: the gasification structure was demolished[30]
Lignite
Lignite is a soft, brownish-black coal that has the lowest energy content of any type of coal. It is also very dirty when burned.[31]
According to the Lignite Energy Council about 79 percent of lignite coal is used to generate electricity, 13.5 percent to generate
The Kemper plant was expected to use about 375,000 tons of locally mined lignite per month or almost 185 million tons over the plant's expected 40-year life.[33] TRIG technology can utilize lignite, which is also a driving factor of the technology.[34]
Technology
Mississippi Power's Kemper plant was intended to be an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facility, utilizing a technology known as "transport integrated gasification" (TRIG) to convert lignite coal—mined on the Kemper site—into syngas.[35] The natural gas would then have been used to power turbines to generate electricity.[36]
Mississippi Power stated that, by adding coal to its sources of power, it wished to add balance to its fuel-source choices, and be less reliant on any one form of energy.[37] There is an estimated four billion tons of lignite available to be used.[35]
If successful, the Kemper Project would have been the second TRIG facility in the United States.
Transport integrated gasification technology
TRIG was developed by the Department of Energy, Southern Company and KBR at the Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville, Alabama.[38]
Southern Company stated that TRIG is a superior coal-gasification method with low impacts to the environment. TRIG technology can utilize lignite, which accounts for more than half of the world's coal reserves and drove global interest in the plant.[39][40]
Power Magazine posted an article in April 2013, walking through the technology in technical detail. They say, "Commercial TRIG units can be designed to achieve high environmental standards for SO2, NOx, dust emissions, mercury, and CO2. Cost analysis based on extensive design has shown that the economic benefits offered by the air-blown transport gasifier relative to other systems are preserved even when CO2 capture and sequestration are incorporated into the design."[41]
Clean coal
If the carbon, capture and sequestration technology used at the Kemper Project had been successful, it would have been the United States’ first clean coal plant.[6] The need for this type of technology has come from decades of debate among energy leaders on how to minimize carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth's atmosphere.[42] In 2013, the United States' coal use was 40%, dominating all other energy sources.[43] Realizing the demand for coal was not decreasing, Mississippi Power, Southern Company, KBR, and the Department of Energy invested in technology to capture emissions from burning fossil fuels.[44] The investing bodies argued the type of clean coal technology they claim are found at the Kemper Project will be adopted worldwide; bringing profits back to Mississippi customers.[45]
Environmentalists state that clean coal is not a possibility, as some emissions will still be emitted into the atmosphere.[46]
Carbon capture and sequestration
Carbon capture and sequestration, also referred to as carbon capture and storage (CCS), is a technology that can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.[47] CCS uses a combination of technologies to capture the CO2 released in the combustion process, transport it to a suitable storage location and finally store it (typically deep underground) where it cannot enter the atmosphere and thus contribute to climate change. CO2 sequestration options include saline formations and oil wells, where captured CO2 can be utilized in enhanced oil recovery.[48]
Due to rising global demand for energy, the consumption of fossil fuels is expected to rise until 2035, leading to greater CO2 emissions.[49]
Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery
Carbon dioxide
The Kemper Plant was planned to have 60 miles of pipeline to carry its captured CO2 to neighboring oil reserves for enhanced oil recovery.[14] Each year, the plant will capture 3 million tons of CO2.[14] In March 2014, The Guardian published that the diverted CO2 will be pumped into two Mississippi companies for use in enhanced oil recovery.[52]
Research and development
The Department of Energy, the Southern Company, and construction management firm KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root) joined at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, Alabama to develop a process known as Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG). This development started in 1996, and the gasifier design of Southern Company's Kemper Coal Plant is based on this specific research and development. The technology is most cost-effective when using low-heat content, high moisture, or high-ash content coals, including lignite.[53]
According to the
The technology of processing coal to gas on a commercial scale has been in development since the 1970s, and it has been in use since the mid-1980s.[55]
The TRIG technology, derived from
The largest transport gasifier built to date commenced operation in 1996 at Southern Company's PSDF. The gasifier and auxiliary equipment at the site were sized to provide reliable data for confident scale-up to commercial scale. The demonstration unit proved easy to operate and control, achieving more than 15,600 hours of gasification. The demonstration-scale gasifier successfully gasified high-moisture lignite from the Red Hills Mine in Mississippi in four separate test campaigns for more than 2,300 hours of operations. On lignite, the transport gasifier operated smoothly over a range of conditions, confirming the gasifier design for Kemper County.[57]
Legal issues
In February 2015, the
In May 2016, Southern Company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power announced they were being investigated by the
In June 2016, Mississippi Power was sued by Treetop Midstream Services over the cancellation of a contract to receive carbon dioxide from the Kemper Project as part of the carbon capture and storage design.[60] Treetop had contracted to buy carbon dioxide from the Kemper plant and had built a pipeline in preparation to receive the gas. Treetop alleged Mississippi Power had fraudulently and "intentionally misrepresenting and concealing the start date" for the Kemper Project, though Mississippi Power stated the suit was without merit.
The company was also found to have unlawfully fired a
Environmental controversies
Environmental groups argue that the project is an expensive undertaking that offers only limited benefits. In 2011, the
The Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club is arguing that the location where the facilities are planned to be built needs to be left alone. They argue that the position of the facilities on a wetland will pollute the environment with tainted water runoff.[63] Also, they believe that the extraction of the lignite will erode the environment and force the relocation of many Mississippians. Mitigation construction activities included the enhancement of 31 acres of wetlands, 105 acres of riparian buffer, and approximately 3,000 linear feet of stream channel.[64][65] In an agreement with the city of Meridian, the plant is using city wastewater as its only water source.[66] Additionally, the Kemper Project site is a "zero" liquid discharge facility. Therefore, no processed water from the plant is discharged into rivers, creeks or streams.[67]
Political controversies
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has praised the planned project's potential of placing Mississippi in national prominence, mostly because it would be the first U.S. commercial-scale power plant to capture carbon.[68] Additionally, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich expressed his support for the Kemper Project, stating that in his opinion it had the potential to be the single most important experiment in developing electricity in the world today. Gingrich's closing words of encouragement for the Kemper Project and the state of Mississippi: "You have a chance to be a remarkable leader in the country in the next 10 to 20 years."[69]
The Kemper Project received an estimated $270 million in Department of Energy funds after the Southern Company's plan for the proposed Orlando Gasification Project bunked when
Mississippi state law was changed to permit charging ratepayers for construction of the facility.[71] In 2017 the Mississippi Public Service Commission recommended the facility burn natural gas rather than syngas from coal to avoid the risk of further consumer rate increases.[9]
The plant missed all its targets and plans for "clean coal" generation were abandoned in July 2017. The plant is expected to go ahead burning natural gas only.[72][73]
See also
- Petra Nova, a CCS project for the WA Parish Generating Station in Texas
References
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