Clean Energy Group Criticizes Costs Of New IL Power Plant
From Daily Herald
Customers of the new Prairie State coal-fired electricity plant – including the electrical agencies to which Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, Naperville and Winnetka belong – will pay much more for the electricity than they expected when they signed up to invest in the plant, clean energy advocates say in a report released Wednesday.
Instead of buying power for about $41 per megawatt hour, customers are paying closer to $60, the report says. The cost could be even higher, according to the report, since that figure is based on the $4.9 billion plant’s two units running at 85 percent capacity in their first year, which the report says is overly optimistic. The first unit fired up in June, several months behind schedule.
