Dive Brief:

• The developer of the Kemper County, Miss., integrated-gasification combined cycle project is blaming the latest delay on "abnormally wet weather" and "lower-than-planned construction labor productivity" for the 582-megawatt plant.
• Southern Co, the parent of plant developer Mississippi Power, told the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that the plant will not be complete by May 2014, but sometime later that year. As a result, the company delay will have to repay the Department of Energy $133 million in tax credits that were predicated on the May 2014 in-service date.
• Southern said the $4.75 billion project—already $1 billion over budget—could see further cost overruns.

Dive Insight: 

Just about everything that could have gone wrong with building a cutting-edge power plant has gone wrong with Kemper. That's too bad because the technology that converts coal into gas to generate electricity could be the salvation of the coal industry. Stakeholders are especially anxious to see if the plant will be able to successfully capture 65% of its carbon dioxide emissions as designed.