As discussions continue about cost, reliability and sustainability goals, the Batavia City Council is considering adopting an energy policy to guide how it provides electricity to residents in the future.
Currently, the city has its own municipal electric utility, according to Batavia City Administrator Laura Newman. The Batavia Municipal Electric Utility gets its energy via a power sales agreement with the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, or NIMPA, a joint action agency made up of Batavia, Geneva and the city of Rochelle.
NIMPA is a partial owner of the Prairie State energy campus, per its website. Power from Prairie State is distributed to NIMPA members, including Batavia, Newman said, meaning the plant is the source of Batavia’s electric power.
Prairie State is a coal-fired power plant in southern Illinois, and has been ranked one of the top 10 biggest polluters in the country, according to 2023 data
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from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.Recently, municipalities across Illinois that are members of the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, or IMEA, a different joint action agency for electricity that relies on power from Prairie State, have been considering whether to remain IMEA members — with the environmental impact one of the key considerations in municipalities like Naperville, according to past reporting.
Earlier this month, nearby St. Charles opted not to renew its contract with the coal-reliant joint action agency to allow them more time to discuss where it wants to get its power from long-term, according to past reporting.
To consider its energy future, Batavia hired economic consulting firm the Brattle Group, Newman said, to create an integrated resource plan, resiliency study, cost of service study and rate plan for the city.
The energy policy the city is considering is meant to provide a starting point for the Brattle Group on what the city’s energy priorities are, Batavia Assistant City Administrator Max Weiss explained at a City Council Committee of the Whole meeting last month.
At that meeting, Weiss said City Council members need to consider whether the city should own its power generation assets or contract for them, whether they would prefer getting the city’s power locally, and how and if the city wants to diversify what kinds of sources Batavia gets its power from. Among the major priorities discussed were reliability, cost and sustainability.
In July, City Council members discussed what their priorities were for the future of Batavia’s electric utility.
Ald. Kevin Malone, for example, expressed support for diversifying the city’s supply, and suggested that having multiple sources means the city is less reliant on a single source.
“We’ve kind of been tied to a coal power plant for a long time,” he said.
Some council members said they’re looking to other energy sources. Ald. Alice Lohman, for example, suggested Batavia consider nuclear energy.
“We should be responsible stewards of our environment, and also fiscally responsible,” Lohman said. “So if this is the cheapest, it’s best for our environment, that’s the way I’d like to go.”
Sustainability goals could also be achieved through other city actions, according to Ald. Abby Beck, who suggested money from Batavia’s plastic bag fee and money possibly generated by a proposed data center project could go toward incentivizing things like energy efficiency and self-generation measures.
Ald. Christopher Solfa said renewable energy wasn’t his first priority for the time being.
“I just want to have cheap, reliable power at this point in time,” Solfa said at the July meeting. “I’m not really looking to change the world, necessarily. I’m just looking to make sure that the city has reliable power that is cheap.”
The city only knows so much, however, about what the future of energy will look like, Ald. Dustin Pieper noted. Ald. Tim Lanci expressed hesitation at the city owning its power source given that uncertainty about where the energy market will go.
Meanwhile, the city is also considering its electricity infrastructure needs as it is deciding on a proposal for a data center at 1780 Hubbard Ave., per the city. The project developer is Batavia DC Corp., a subsidiary of Hut 8.
Due to the size of its energy load, the proposed data center wouldn’t be getting its electric utility via Batavia’s agreement with NIMPA, per the city’s webpage about the project. Rather, the data center would have a market-based rate plan, according to the city.
The proposed data center would pay for and construct on-site electrical improvements, according to documents from the city. The city would be responsible for constructing off-site electrical improvements, but is asking that the data center pay for them upfront — at an estimated cost of $18 million. But the city intends to reimburse the data center for fronting those costs over time, using revenue that the proposed data center would pay to the city through the master services agreement for the electric utility, Newman explained.
According to a memo from Newman, the proposed data center is expected to be a $500 million, 120,000-square-foot facility that could be operational by the end of 2026 or early 2027. Per Newman’s memo, the power needed to operate the data center when it is first up and running could generate $2.3 million in revenue for the electric utility and $5.5 million a year once its energy load is at capacity.
At the July 21 City Council meeting, Ald. Leah Leman asked if the city could put a cap on how quickly the data center scaled up its electric usage. She said she was “a little uncomfortable” with the council moving forward with the electric agreement for the data center while they were still waiting on information from ComEd, with whom the city has an infrastructure and interconnection agreement, about the needed infrastructure improvements.
As for other concerns, Beck asked about whether there would be reporting or testing of wastewater emissions from businesses that then flow into nearby rivers and streams.
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Despite some requests from council members and residents for the city to pause before approving the agreement, the council ultimately passed the master services agreement for the data center’s electric needs in July.
As for the city’s energy policy meant to guide its future resource planning and investment decisions, after the July meeting it went on to be considered by the City Council on Monday.
Weiss explained at the meeting that the original plan discussed by the council in July had been revised to incorporate feedback and input from the City Council and other stakeholders.
For example, the updated version of the policy’s discussion on resource diversity notes that “the current technology and regulatory environment create challenges in delivering fully clean capacity resources,” and that the city’s electric utility will “continue to monitor developments that could expand future clean, reliable options.”
Ald. Alan Wolff said he felt the new draft outlined what the City Council wants in an energy policy, but said it should function as a guide that’s modified when necessary so the city has “adaptability” moving forward in light of possible regulatory changes and new technology.
“Future councils are going to have to make decisions on that,” he said.
At Monday’s meeting, however, several council members expressed an interest in waiting on voting on the policy until some further additions were made.
Pieper asked whether delaying the vote would create issues on the Brattle Group’s side, to which Weiss said the city had already provided the firm with a draft policy and that it wasn’t a major issue.
Ultimately, the council voted on Monday to table a vote on the policy and bring it back up at its next Committee of the Whole meeting, where council members would vote on the policy with any new amendments. The matter would then go before the City Council again at a future meeting.