St. Charles is faced with a decision regarding his electricity supplier

The Prairie State coal-fired power plant in southern Illinois is one of the power sources for the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, which supplies electricity to St. Charles and 31 other communities.
Courtesy of the US Department of Energy

Amid a nationwide push to transition to clean energy, St. Charles faces a decision whether to agree to a long-term contract extension with its current coal-fired power supplier or consider other options.

About 50 residents of St. Charles attended a city council committee meeting on June 24 to hear a presentation from representatives of the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency.

IMEA is a nonprofit agency that provides power to 32 municipalities in Illinois. St. Charles has been using IMEA energy since 2004 and has a contract with the energy supplier until September 30, 2035.

IMEA calls on St. Charles and other Illinois municipalities, such as Naperville and Winnetka, to enter into a new agreement by May 2055.

Director of Public Works of the City of St. Charles, Peter Suhr, said he supports the expansion.

“There really is no real reason to join another joint action agency. There is no real reason to create a new joint agency. There is no real reason to enter into short-term contracts open to market volatility and price volatility,” Suhr said. “However, there is one very viable solution, and that is to continue our long-term relationship with IMEA beyond 2035.”

However, committee members were hesitant to support an extension, mainly due to concerns about sustainability, dependence on coal and unclear plans for future clean energy production.

IEMA officials said sustainability, reliability and affordability were key reasons for the city to extend the contract. Twenty of the 32 municipalities that make up IMEA have already made long-term commitments, they added.

IMEA President and CEO Kevin Gaden said the agency has been able to provide municipalities with consistently low energy costs, with current prices being 5% lower than when St. Charles joined the agency in 2004. IMEA is expected to repay all of its long-term bonds by 2035, which he believes would reduce energy costs for municipalities by about 25%.

Gaden also touted IMEA’s reliability, citing an average power recovery time after an outage of 16 minutes, compared to more than an hour for ComEd.

About 11% of IMEA’s energy comes from renewable, non-carbon-emitting sources, which Gaden said is the highest of any utility in Illinois. Only about 6% of ComEd’s energy now comes from non-carbon-emitting sources, he said.

IEMA can reach 30% by 2035, Gaden added, and its goal is to deliver net-zero energy by 2050.

IMEA owns a 15% stake in Prairie State, a coal-fired power plant in southern Illinois that is the state’s largest emitter of planet-warming carbon dioxide and one of the 10 largest in the U.S., according to a 2019 study by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The timeline presented at the meeting indicates that the Prairie State facility is expected to close half of the plant by 2038, which will reduce CO2 emissions by 45%, and to completely shut it down by 2045. IMEA also obtains power from the Trimble County coal plant in Kentucky , which is scheduled to close by 2050.

With almost 11 years left on the IEMA contract, several St. Charles questioned why another 20-year commitment needed to be made soon.

“I’m concerned that we only have a year to make a decision on a 30-year contract. It’s a big commitment for the residents and that’s what concerns me,” said Councilman Ron Silkaitis.

IMEA wants to make a commitment now to get the right amount of energy through long-term contracts at better rates, Gaden said. Without knowing how many municipalities the agency will serve after 2035, it’s hard to estimate how much energy they’ll need to supply, he said.

The city has until April 2025 to make a commitment, and city officials will continue to discuss the decision at future meetings.