The Prairie State Coal Campus located in Washington County in southern Illinois

ROCHELLE — The Prairie State Coal Campus, a multi-billion dollar clean coal plant that Rochelle and its partnering organization have a stake in, is nearly 50 percent complete and cost estimates have risen slightly.

But Rochelle city officials are confident the decision for the city and the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency to buy a total of 7.6 percent of the 1,600 megawatt hours the plant will produce was still a great move.

“It is judged to be an economic resource for the next 30 years,” City Manager Ken Alberts said.

Part of that reason is because Alberts said all of the coal reserves were purchased in advanced, meaning the fuel to fire plant is at a fixed cost instead of rising with inflation.

The plant, which was proposed in 2001 and approved in 2007, uses new technology and scientific methods such as Nitrogen Oxide controls to reduce the amount of pollution created from burning Illinois coal.

The facility also is being built adjacent to the coal mine that will fuel it, reducing carbon that would be emitted from transportation.

Rochelle, along with its partnering organization NIMPA, own about 120 of the megawatt hours produced.

Rochelle owns 30 of those megawatt hours.

Recently, some municipalities have become increasingly concerned about the projects costs.

It was originally proposed as a $2.2 billion project in 2001, but cost estimates to finish it next year have now doubled, costs that will most likely be pushed off on to the consumers.

Alberts said original estimates for energy were set around $45 per megawatt hour.

Estimated cost

Estimates are now in the lower 50-dollar range per megawatt hour, but he added that actual costs won’t be calculated for some time.

Rochelle Municipal Utility General Manager Ed Carr said its very hard to judge an actual estimated cost for megawatt hours right now because the variable costs of the project have not been solidified and everything is up in the air.

“There is a lot of stuff with Prairie State that we don’t have answers to,” Carr said.

One of those variables would be the cost of cap and trade.

For the complete article see the 07-23-2010 issue.