Cooperative Assets

Pearl Station

A 22-megawatt, coal-fired baseload power plant located in Pike County, Ill., along the Illinois River, Pearl Station — owned and operated by Prairie Power— first went on-line in 1968. In fiscal 2007, Pearl produced 166.891 megawatt-hours of electricity.

Pearl Station

Alsey Generating Station

Owned by PPI and operated by PPI staff, the Alsey Generating Station is a five-unit, natural gas-fired (the units can also operate on fuel oil, if necessary) peaking complex located in Scott County, Ill., near the village of Alsey. The facility entered service in July 1999 and has a rating of 123 megawatts. The Alsey Station operates in conjunction with a private power company when it is more cost-effective to run the combustion turbines than purchase power from other providers. It is designed to run during periods of peak electric use. Since air permits for the facility limit emissions to no more than 250 tons of nitrogen oxide annually, operation is capped at 937 hours per year. Alsey generated 1,543 megawatt-hours of electricity during 2007.

Alsey

Other Illinois Peaking Plants

During times of peak electricity demand and system emergencies, PPI can call on a 20-megawatt oil-fired combustion turbine based at Pearl Station and 9 megawatts from five diesel units located at Pittsfield in Pike County, Ill. Typically, both facilities run less than 200 hours per year and in 2007 these facilities generated 42.4 megawatt-hours of energy.

Proposed New Baseload Generating Station 

In July 2007, the Board of Directors of PPI annnounced its commitment of ownership of 130 megawatts (or 8.22% ownership) of the Priairie State Energy Campus under development in southern Illinois. The Prairie State Project is a 1,600 megawatt coal-fueled power plant to be owned by Peabody Energy, PPI, the Indiana Municipal Power Agency, Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Commission, Kentucky Muncipal Power Agency, Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, AMP of Ohio and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative. This $4 billion project will utilize state-of-the-art air emission technologies to be among the cleanest coal-fueled power plants in the United States. Prairie State's air emissions are expected to be one-fifth of  the regulated emission rates of existing U.S. coal plants. Its carbon dioxide emission rate will be approximately 15% lower than typical US coal plants.  Unit 1 of Prairie State is currently scheduled to be on-line by July 2011, with Unit 2 to be on line in June 2012.

Prairie State

Power Purchase Contracts

Through the end of 2008, Prairie Power has an attractive wholesale power supply contract with Ameren Energy Marketing.  Anticipating the need for future power supply prior to and during the operation of the Prairie State Generating Plant, PPI has entered into power purchase agreements for base load energy from Ameren Energy Marketing and for intermediate peaking energy from American Electric Power and Morgan Stanley Capital Group for the period of January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2011.  Capacity has also been purchased for January 2009 through May 2010 and additional capacity is being pursued for June 2010 through December 2011.  Prior to the Prairie State Generating Plant becoming fully operational in 2012, Prairie Power will be seeking a small amount of baseload energy and intermediate peaking energy for 2012 and beyond to complement the energy supplied from the Prairie State Generating Plant. 

Load Management

PPI employs a system control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to monitor load levels, transmission facilities and generating plant performance.  Through SCADA, real-time decisions about generation or purchased power requirements and consumer load reductions can be made based upon forecasts, schedules and actual system performance.  This decision making capability is key in today’s market-based electric utility industry.  PPI's load management system has the capability of curtailing approximately 55 megawatts of consumer demand during periods of peak energy usage which saves PPI and its member distribution cooperatives significant costs related to excess capacity, energy and transmission charges.