The Naperville City Council this week approved an agreement with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, designed to help stabilize future electricity rates for the city.
Naperville will become the 30th municipality, and largest energy user, to join the not-for-profit power-purchasing agency, whose portfolio includes natural gas, coal and hydropower.
The agency is expected to become a stakeholder in the development of the Prairie State Energy Campus, a coal-based power plant in Downstate Washington County. The agency wants to buy a 15 percent share of the business. The energy campus, to be completely retooled by 2011, will produce clean, low-cost electricity, according to city staff. The agency will become the seventh joint-action public power agency to join Peabody Energy’s multibillion-dollar investment in Illinois.
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Local Sierra Club members criticized the vote, saying the facility is old and a heavy polluter.
However, city staff felt the decision was a good one.
“Based on my 45 years of experience as an environmental engineer, the city’s decision to join the IMEA is rock solid,” said Allan Poole, director of public utilities. “City staff and the City Council have dedicated an enormous amount of time to researching the IMEA and educating themselves on the different power source options. In the end, I’m positive that this membership is in the best interest of the city, its residents and businesses.”