‘Clean-Coal’ Plant Suffers New Setback
Southern Co.’s Kemper Plant Already Billions Over Budget

By Russell Gold
June 5, 2017 8:07 p.m. ET

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.
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Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com