A distant cousin of Elvis Presley may have just killed off "clean coal." Seriously.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

A distant cousin of Elvis Presley may have just killed off "clean coal." Seriously.

Link to tweet

Mississippi Regulators Seek to End Southern Co. ‘Clean-Coal’ Plant

After $7.5 billion spent, Kemper facility may be converted permanently to natural gas

By Russell Gold

https://twitter.com/russellgold

Updated June 21, 2017 5:13 p.m. ET

The future of a Mississippi power plant aimed at showcasing “clean coal” technology is in doubt after state regulators on Wednesday issued an ultimatum to Southern Co., warning that they would not pass on more of its ballooning costs to ratepayers.

Mississippi regulators said they wanted the Kemper power plant, which has already taken $7.5 billion and seven years to finish, to run using natural gas going forward, and don't want any additional costs to be passed on to electricity customers.

The plant has primarily been running on natural gas, not coal, since 2015, because the company has struggled to make the clean coal technology consistently work. ... The regulators’ action leaves Southern with a difficult decision over how to salvage its costly investment, including possibly having to write down part of the value of the facility.

Ending the plant’s clean coal experiment would be a major setback for efforts to use technology to remove carbon emissions from coal plants, an idea the Trump administration renewed its commitment to on Tuesday. ... “We are telling the parties to get a plan and get a settlement in 45 days that does not increase rates one penny,” said Mississippi Public Service Commission Chairman Brandon Presley.
....

Write to Russell Gold at [e-mail]

Appeared in the June 22, 2017, print edition as 'Clean Coal Plant in Doubt.'

[friendly_iconoclast]

1. Southern was banking on two things that didn't pan out for them:

1. That they could get the clean coal technology to work, and

2. That the price of natural gas would remain high enough vis-a-vis coal that it would make sense
not to make Kemper a combined-cycle, gas-fired plant from the start.

[hatrack]

2. Thank you! Thankyouverramuch!

Looks like Southern stuck with "proven fuels" and "predictable energy markets", until they suddenly weren't proven or predictable.

Too bad. You can buy a lot of solar panels, insulate a lot of houses, hire a lot of science teachers with $7.5 BILLION.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. In Blow to Clean Coal, Flawed Plant Will Burn Gas Instead

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/climate/kemper-coal-mississippi-clean-coal-project.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]In Blow to ‘Clean Coal,’ Flawed Plant Will Burn Gas Instead[/font]

By HENRY FOUNTAIN | JUNE 28, 2017

[font size=3]The Southern Company on Wednesday effectively gave up on an ambitious “clean coal” project, announcing that a flawed coal-fired power plant in central Mississippi would now burn natural gas instead.

The Kemper County plant, built to take advantage of a strip coal mine next door, was three years behind schedule and, at a cost of about $7.5 billion, $4 billion over its projected budget. Equipment meant to turn the coal into gas and remove at least two-thirds of the carbon dioxide from it to keep it out of the atmosphere never worked as designed.

Last week, the Mississippi Public Service Commission issued an ultimatum about the troubled project, setting a deadline of July 6 to begin negotiations on its future and recommending that it run on natural gas. The commission had proposed that most of the billions of dollars in losses from the plant be absorbed by shareholders, not by electricity ratepayers.

The lignite coal that is mined adjacent to the Kemper County plant emits more climate-warming carbon dioxide per unit of heat than other coal, and far more than natural gas. Southern had intended the plant to demonstrate how even the dirtiest coal could be cleaned up. But in their statement last week, the state regulators referred to it as “unproven technology” that put shareholders and customers at financial risk.

…[/font][/font]