SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative's wholesale power supplier, Southern Illinois Power Cooperative (SIPC) located at the Lake Of Egypt near Marion, is facing load growth of approximately 50% in the next few years.  In order to meet future power needs, SIPC has evaluated options including construction of a new plant, long-term contract to purchase power from another supplier and joint ownership of a power plant. 

On August 30th, the SIPC Board of Directors voted to acquire 125 megawatts of the Prairie State Energy Campus.  Prairie State is a planned 1,600 megawatt supercritical coal-fueled power plant to be located in Washington County, Illinois near Marissa.  The project has been under development for some time and construction is slated to begin in early October.  Prairie State will provide baseload electricity to dozens of communities in southern Illinois and will serve approximately 1.7 million families from Missouri to Virginia. 

Prairie State is owned by numerous partners including:  American Municipal Power-Ohio; the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency; Indiana Municipal Power Agency; Kentucky Municipal Power Agency; Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission; Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency; and Prairie Power Inc.  

Prairie State will create more than 450 permanent jobs and will annually inject nearly $100 million in economic benefits.  The bulk of construction trades hiring is beginning this fall, and Prairie State will employ more than 2,000 workers when construction activity peaks in the second half of 2009.  Units one and two are expected to come on line in 2011 and 2012.  Prairie State will feature advanced technology resulting in high efficiencies while achieving emissions that are far superior to America's current coal-fired generating fleet.  Prairie State will be fueled from an adjacent coal mine, thereby minimizing fuel and related transportation costs.

SIPC's current generation portfolio consists of coal and natural gas fired generating units, all of which are located at SIPC's Lake of Egypt facility south of Marion.  The ownership share of Prairie State will diversify SIPC's generation mix.  Moreover, participation in a large plant provides economies of scale unavailable in a small unit.

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See you next month and as always, "We'll keep the lights on for you."