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BLOOMINGTON - Corn Belt Energy Corporation, a locally owned energy cooperative headquartered in Bloomington, has developed a plan for construction of the first coal-fired generating plant to be built in Illinois in 14 years. In fact it is only one of two coal-generating plants planned for construction in the United States. The generating plant will be built on land owned by Turris Coal company and is projected to use approximately 370,000 tons of coal per year from the company’s Elkhart mine in Logan County.
The plans call for a 91-megawatt plant costing $137 million. The plant is moderately sized compared to many Illinois coal-fired power stations. For example, the nearest coal plant, owned by Springfield’s City Water Light and Power, is nearly three times the size of the proposed Corn Belt plant. Because the plant will demonstrate new clean coal technology it will be partially financed with grants totaling $51 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs and the Illinois Clean Coal Board. Corn Belt Energy is taking the lead ownership position in the plant and is expecting two other cooperatives to become joint owners.
“We needed to minimize the cost of power for our members,” says Jeff Reeves, president/CEO of Corn Belt Energy. “One of the ways to do that is to own our own generation instead of buying power on the market. Right now electricity has become a very volatile commodity. Wholesale power prices have been as high as $7 per kilowatt-hour during peak demand times when energy supplies are at a premium.”
Turris Coal Company, in addition to leasing the land for the facility, may become part owner of the coal-fired plant. Building the plant at the mine site eliminates the cost of transportation and the need to take local farmland out of production.
Reeves says the coal-fired generating plant will be the first large-scale demonstration of a boiler built by the D.B. Riley Company that dramatically reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. The basic boiler design has been used for 30 years in Europe, but has been redesigned to use re-engineered burners that will substantially reduce NOx emissions. The Department of Energy has funded the burner improvement through the Low Emission Boiler System program The new generating plant will also be built with scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Using this new clean coal technology, the plant will exceed all current environmental requirements. The plant will also have air-cooling condensers, which can potentially reduce water use by 68 percent.
Illinois sits above one of the largest coal deposits in the world. There is enough coal under the state’s surface, in a 37,000 square mile area that stretches from downstate Cairo to Galesburg in eastern Illinois, to power six million homes for 500 years at present consumption rates. Coal is the state’s third largest industry, but it has been in decline since 1990. A future turn around in the industry will require commercially available clean coal-fueled technology and companies willing to invest in coal-fueled facilities.
Clean coal technology will also mean stable electric rates. Of the nations twenty-five power plants with the lowest operating costs, twenty-three are fueled by coal. The price of coal has declined 40 percent in real terms as natural gas prices have recently more than doubled.
In recent years, Illinois’ demand for electricity has been outstripping the supply. Although Illinois avoided rolling blackouts and sky-high power prices consumers experienced in California this summer, Illinois experienced similar power shortages in 1998 and 1999. Most utility plans for construction of base-load coal fired plants have been shelved in favor of natural gas fired peaking facilities called “peaker plants.” These plants only address the short-term peak load requirements created by high air conditioning demands during the summer, Reeves noted. Gas-fired peaker plants, while part of the answer, do not address the long-term need for lower-cost, base load electricity generation. And they do not address the need to develop new clean coal technology.
Through research and demonstration projects at the commercial level, Illinois has become a leader in developing clean coal technologies that will allow high-sulfur coal to be used in an environmentally sound manner. Current technologies have already helped decrease emissions by 19 percent nationwide and by 35 percent in Illinois.
Reeves commends the U.S. Department of Energy, Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs and the Illinois Clean Coal Board for having the foresight to move this technology forward to safeguard air quality through lower emissions, provide new electric generation and provide for the means to utilize one of our most abundant resources – coal.
Reeves says, “We believe we have covered our bases, but there are still hurdles to overcome in the next few months. To move forward we are working closely with local, state and federal officials. If issues surface that impacts the financials so much that it makes it uneconomical and is no longer in the best interest of our co-op members, then we would recommend not going forward. We don’t expect that to happen.”
Reeves also noted that the cooperative has a load management program to help lower demand for electricity during summer peaks, and the cooperative continues to promote many energy conservation programs such as geothermal heat pumps and energy efficient home construction. “There is no one answer to our power supply needs and the cost of energy. It will take all of us working together to find answers to our energy requirements, keep our economy growing, build environmentally sound power plants, and provide reasonably priced energy solutions for our cooperative members,” said Reeves.
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