Closing Illinois coal plant would cut pollution but cost some towns that have a stake in it

If the Prairie State coal plant owned by municipal utilities in Winnetka, Naperville, Batavia and other towns is forced to shut down, it would be the end for a big source of air pollution.

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The Prairie State coal plant would shut down under a proposal being considered in Springfield that environmental groups support. But municipalities, including some in the Chicago area, that have long-term deals to buy electricity from Prairie State could end up being hit with higher prices even as they’re still on the hook to pay off bonds they issued to buy in to the plant.

The Prairie State coal plant would shut down under a proposal being considered in Springfield that environmental groups support. But municipalities, including some in the Chicago area, that have long-term deals to buy electricity from Prairie State could end up being hit with higher prices even as they’re still on the hook to pay off bonds they issued to buy in to the plant.

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After more than a decade of controversy, a move to force the closing of a Southern Illinois coal plant owned by municipal utilities in Winnetka, Naperville, Batavia and dozens of other towns across the state is one of the final sticking points in Springfield over a major energy bill.

If the Prairie State plant is forced to shut down by 2035, as Illinois legislators have proposed, it would begin the final chapter of a saga that led to the construction of one of the country’s last new coal plants, one that became a major source of air pollution.

“Prairie State, by itself, makes up a significant portion of the power-sector emissions in our state,” says J.C. Kibbey, a clean energy advocate for Natural Resources Defense Council in Illinois. 

Beside being dirty, the plant left the operators of some locally owned electric utilities in the Chicago area furious over unfulfilled promises of competitive prices. In exchange for the guarantee of reliable power with predictable pricing, the utilities took ownership in the massive plant, signing up for decades of debt.

If the plant is forced to close, they, as owners, will have to continue repaying the debt even as they have to find and pay for replacement sources of electricity that could lead to much higher electricity bills.

Over the past week, the plant emerged as an obstacle to passage of key energy legislation in Springfield, a bill that would include an expansion of subsidies for nuclear plants, more funding for renewable energy projects and a ramping-up of climate targets that would include a phaseout of coal power.

Going beyond a May 31 deadline to finish their work, lawmakers are trying to find a way to respond to concerns about the financial ramifications of closing Prairie State.

Environmental advocates say the state can’t afford to let the plant continue to operate if Illinois is to meet climate goals. Lawmakers backed by environmental groups are considering a state bailout of more than $600 million of three Exelon nuclear plants.

Tensions are high because many participants see past clean energy legislation as having fallen short of promises.

Prairie State has been the single biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in Illinois, 12.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, the most recent year for which federal data are available. The plant ranks ninth in the country for carbon dioxide releases.

No other power plant in the state comes close to Prairie State’s emissions. And most of the other coal-fired plants already are scheduled to close, including all five plants owned by Vistra Corp, which has said it will shut them down by 2027.

Aydali Campa reports for Inside Climate News.

This story is a collaboration between the Sun-Times and Inside Climate News. Dan Gearino reports for Inside Climate News.

“It’s not particularly a surprise that this plant wasn’t going to live out a typical lifespan,” says Emily Grubert, an energy systems researcher at Georgia Tech.

The plant’s combination of high emissions and high costs means it’s difficult to justify keeping it open, Grubert says.

It cost about $5 billion for construction, including about $1 billion in cost overruns.

Prairie State, which began operating in 2012, was one one of the last large, coal-fired power plants built in the United States before market forces shifted against coal because other sources of electricity — like natural gas, wind and solar energy — were becoming less expensive and because of the rising likelihood that the state or federal government would pass stricter emissions limits.

Among this last generation of coal-fired electric plants, Prairie State is in a category of its own because it initially was developed by a coal company, Peabody Energy. The idea was to buy coal from an adjacent mine, with Peabody selling the electricity through long-term contracts with municipalities and rural electric cooperatives that might have been less well equipped to assess the risks than large energy companies would be.

The plant’s customers and co-owners include about 200 communities in a footprint that stretches from Missouri to Virginia. In the Chicago area, they also include Geneva and St. Charles.

Environmental advocates warned early on that Prairie State was almost certain to be an environmental and financial disaster.

Prairie State’s backers told local utilities that an investment in the coal plant would provide a hedge against volatile market prices for electricity.

Prairie State’s backers told local utilities that an investment in the coal plant would provide a hedge against volatile market prices for electricity.

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The Illinois Municipal Utilities Association, a trade group for utilities that signed up with Prairie State, says the state still needs coal “until technology can support fully renewable energy.”

The plant’s customers have paid prices nearly double the equivalent prices they’d have paid in regional markets, according to an analysis last year by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which does research to advocate for a transition to clean energy. Prairie State customers are paying down billions of dollars in principal and interest on the bonds used to buy their ownership shares.

“The power from the plant is way too expensive and is causing financial hardship for the communities,” says Sandy Buchanan, executive director of the institute.

Buchanan previously was executive director of Ohio Citizen Action, a role in which she warned local government officials in the 2000s of the risks of investing in the plant.

Prairie State Generating Co. executives say they’re committed to providing “reliable and environmentally responsible electric power..”

“Prairie State and its owners have been engaged with lawmakers for years about how to ensure the best path forward,” company spokeswoman Alyssa Harre says in a written statement.

In 2007, Naperville signed a deal with Prairie State for electricity that ends in 2035, which is also the schedule for paying off the bonds. So closing the plant by that date would have less of an impact than it would on, say, Batavia, which took one of the biggest stakes in the coal plant.

Batavia is on the hook until 2042 to keep paying off the debt it incurred through bond sales to buy in to Prairie State. Batavia officials are unhappy with the deal struck years ago. But they say any legislative mandate to close the plant should also include provisions to help the governments that would be affected. 

Even if the plant is closed, local utilities are on the hook for millions of dollars a year in bond debt, says Laura Newman, Batavia’s city administrator. 

“We tried to get out,” Newman says, referring to past legal attempts to be freed from the agreement. “We left no stone unturned to find out if we can undo this.”

For the city of Rochelle, about 80 miles west of Chicago, a benefit of having a contract with Prairie State has been that it kept electricity rates predictable, according to Jeff Fiegenschuh, the city manager there.

If the state forces the shutdown of Prairie State, Rochelle wants state compensation for its costs because it can’t spread its expenses over a large customer base the way larger utilities can, according to Fiegenschuh.

“We are in favor of more renewables, no question about it,” he says of transitioning to renewable energy sources. “But we participated in this project for electricity reliability and long-term stability.”

Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.

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