Clean-Coal' Plant Suffers New Setback
June 05 2017 - 8:37PM
Dow Jones News
By Russell Gold
Southern Co.'s dream of a fully functional "clean coal" power
plant is facing another setback.
The company said Monday that it would need to redesign and
replace a critical component in its Kemper County, Miss., power
plant in order for the plant to achieve "long-term sustained
operations." The related engineering and construction could take 18
to 24 months, it said.
Southern is trying to build the first power plant of its kind,
one able to burn coal and capture about 65% of the carbon-dioxide
emissions. But the project has faced repeated delays and cost
overruns, and since last year, as the facility began to test the
equipment, it has experienced leaks and other problems that have
pushed back when the facility would be fully operational.
The company's Mississippi Power unit, which is building the
facility, said it has spent $5.9 billion on the power plant so far,
and $7.5 billion on the plant, coal mines and pipelines to carry
the captured carbon dioxide to oil companies, which would pump it
underground to extract more crude oil from wells. In 2010, the
facility was forecast to cost $3 billion to build.
Southern, based in Atlanta, didn't provide any estimate of how
much the new changes would cost.
The facility is designed to burn either natural gas or a
"syngas" -- a synthetic gas made from coal. The natural gas side
has been operational for a few years, but Southern has had repeated
problems with the syngas side.
A spokesman for the company said the facility was able to
operate, but couldn't specify how long the company has been able to
operate the equipment continuously before shutting down.
It has been plagued with several leaks from its equipment and
unexpected ash buildup. The leaks are occurring in equipment that
handles superheated gas, which can exceed 1500 degrees
Fahrenheit.
The company said in a filing that the leaks would require the
"redesign and eventual replacement of the syngas cooler
super-heaters sooner than originally expected."
Earlier this year, Southern told investors in a filing that due
to higher-than-expected operating costs, it wouldn't be economical
to run the plant on gasified coal unless the cost of natural gas
exceeded $5 per million British thermal units. The federal
government doesn't expect the cost of gas to reach that level until
2030.
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 05, 2017 20:22 ET (00:22 GMT)
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