Clean Energy Alliance of Naperville

Clean Energy Transition Off Coal-Fired Electricity

News and Updates

IMEA Board Meeting Feb 20, 2025 “Highlights”

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Office using the WordPress editor.

Hello Energy,

Sharing my “highlights” from the Thursday February 20 IMEA Board Meeting:

  1. IMEA Goals for Fiscal Year (FY) 25/26
  2. IMEA Member Mascoutah New Contract Approval
  3. IMEA Bonds Refinancing Approval
  4. Revised and Original New Budgets Approval
  5. Nomination and Approval of IMEA Officers
  6. Some Additional Noteworthy Items

The link to a copy of this board meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TD7uD9HdvwSKufOE2L7jl-SbQsNEgnJL/view

The link to IMEA’s board meetings webpage, which also now contains links to board meeting packets including the February packet, is:
https://imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp
Note that IMEA is now keeping older meeting records posted on their website, including board meeting packets but not including board meeting slides.

Links to our CLEAN historical collection of IMEA board meeting slides, agendas, minutes, resolutions, monthly financial reports, etc. is posted on the CLEAN Sources and Resource webpage:
https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources/imea-board-and-other-imea-records/

Note that this report does not include the previous day’s exec board meeting which reviewed the same resolutions/ordinances to be approved by the regular full board. I do try to provide an exec board highlights report during the months when there is no regular full board meeting.

1. IMEA Goals for Fiscal Year (FY) 25/26 (slide 16)

[Note that IMEA “Fiscal Year 25/26” is the same as “Fiscal Year 2026” which ends on Apr 30, 2026 and started on the previous calendar year’s May 1, 2025. IMEA often also uses the beginning and ending year notation in their references to the IMEA fiscal year.]

Copy/pasting directly from the slide. Please note my use of 3 italicized items to emphasize: the new contract criteria for terms beyond April 30, 2025, the battery study, and CVR.

  • Complete FY 25/26 below approved budget
  • Maintain Debt Service Coverage of 1.20 at fiscal year end
  • Visit each Member at least once in fiscal year
  • Maintain all current financial ratings agency status
  • Complete Ameren Wholesale Connection Agreements with members and work with Ameren regarding filings and approval at FERC
  • Review status of outstanding IMEA Member Power Sales Contracts and provide criteria for terms beyond April 30, 2025
  • Complete IMEA bond refinancing
  • Extend IMEA Demand Response Program for FY 25/26 and sign up at least 4 retail customers
  • Evaluate Ameren WDS rate change proposal and determine IMEA’s efforts to mitigate increases
  • Complete study of installing utility scale, BTM battery storage unit within a member system to be completed by December 31, 2025
  • Determine options and most cost-effective method(s) for a Conservation Voltage Reduction Program by December 31, 2025 [Note: Naperville already utilizes its own CVR program.]
  • Evaluate member interest and logistics to approve the Transmission Joint Ownership Agreement with Ameren to build 138kv line between Peru and Princeton as well as larger MISO Tranche 2 transmission opportunities

2. IMEA Member Mascoutah New Contract Approval (slide 41)

  • The IMEA board adopted resolution #25-02-939 to formally accept and approve the new contract of Mascoutah
  • [As also mentioned during the President and CEO report] the Carmi city council has now also approved the new contract. Carmi will be formally accepted and approved at the April IMEA board meeting, making it 25 out 32 members that have approved

3. IMEA Bonds Refinancing Approval (slides 42 – 44)

  • The IMEA board approved ordinance #25-02-940 authorizing the sales of bonds to refinance the remaining 10 years of IMEA’s debt:
    $387.4M of outstanding 2015A tax exempt bonds
    $256.2M of outstanding 2009C and 2010A Build America Bonds (BABs). if savings are at or near break even
  • Will not extend IMEA’s bond obligations beyond 2035, which is also the existing bonds maturity date
  • Planning to be ready to price and to sell in May 2025
  • Bank of America is the Senior Underwriter
  • This ordinance #25-02-940 is reported to be very similar to the ordinance that approved the sale of the 2015A bonds

4. Revised and Original New Budgets Approval (slides 45 – 61)

  • The IMEA board approved two budget ordinances, one revising the current fiscal year’s budget (FY2025) and the other establishing the new fiscal year budget (FY2026)
  • Ordinance #25-02-941 revises the operating and capital budget for the current fiscal year (FY2025) which ends on April 30, 2025
    • The presentation slides for the revised budget are slides 46 -51
    • The ordinance including the revised budget are on pdf pages 48-54 in the board meeting packet
    • Heard that lower prices in PJM where IMEA is selling are offset by lower prices in MISO where IMEA is buying
      [Note: “selling” apparently indicates greater IMEA resource generation credits than members’ consumption charges, and “buying” indicates greater members’ consumption charges than IMEA resource generation credits.  Also, IMEA’s ownership shares of Prairie State and apparently Trimble County too are pseudo-tied to PJM, such that IMEA receives PJM market revenue/ credits from PJM for their output generation]
    • Prairie State and Trimble had more than expected outage days, so fuel decreased and O&M increased
    • PJM peaks were lower than forecasted, so transmission costs were lower
    • Prairie State and Trimble County Capital Expenditures decreased due to timing of expenditures. IMEA’s May to Apr fiscal year is apparently different than the fiscal years of Prairie State and Trimble
  • Ordinance #25-02-942 establishes the original budget for the new fiscal year (FY2026) which begins this upcoming May 1, 2025 and ends on Apr 30, 2026
    • The presentation slides for the new original budget are slides 52 – 59
    • The ordinance including new original budget are on pdf pages 55-61 in the board meeting packet
    • Average cost to members is projected to be $88.83, which is 3.5% higher than the FY2025 revised budget
    • Prairie State is assumed to have higher availability and higher generation and therefore also higher fuel costs than the FY2025 revised budget
    • Trimble County has more scheduled outage days. TC Unit 1 has 85 planned outages days (65-day outage for turbine maintenance). TC Unit2 has 73 planned outage days (62-day outage for turbine maintenance)
    • Ameren NITS (transmission) charges are estimated to increase 21%
    • PJM NITS (transmission) charges are estimated to increase 2.3%
  • IMEA’s table of Updated Financial Projections (through FY 2029) is on slide 60
  • IMEA’s bar chart of Average Cost, illustrating the effect of power supply costs and transmission costs, is on slide 61 titled “IMEA Rates are Very  Stable and have been Sustained for many years”

[NOTE: First, allow me to express my thanks and appreciation to our Electric Director for the budget questions that he asked regarding items I raised in my email to him less than 48 hours before this regular full board meeting. Then next, I’m sharing my citizen opinion that there are reasons why one might question the IMEA budget process, including:

  • Based on the packet cover letter, IMEA board members (many, if not most, with other full-time job responsibilities) apparently received the budget in their board packet only 7 calendar days in advance of the board meeting, 6 days in advance of the exec board meeting
  • When IMEA posted the packet on its website on Tuesday morning, roughly 48 hours remained for the public to review and ask questions of their board member representatives
  • There was only one budget presentation, followed by the approval vote in the very same meeting
  • Prior to the vote, the IMEA President and CEO informed the board members that the IMEA exec board had unanimously approved the budget the day before.]

5. Nomination and Approval of IMEA Officers (slide 62 and 67)

  • Our Naperville Electric Director, Brian Groth, continues as Vice-Chair for FY2026
  • Copy/pasting nominations from slide 62 that were unanimously approved:
    • Dan Cook, Highland as Chairman
    • Brian Groth, Naperville as Vice Chairman
    • Bob Coble, Flora as Secretary/Treasurer
    • Cory Sheehy, Marshall as Past Chairman
    • Troy Fodor as Assistant Secretary/Treasurer
  • 5 [at large] one-year term exec board members:
    • Larry Taylor, Altamont
    • David Coston, Carmi
    • Pat McCarthy, Chatham
    • Pete Suhr, St. Charles
    • Mike Kirk, Sullivan

6. Some additional noteworthy items

Note: Here are some but not all noteworthy items to satisfy everyone’s interests, so please use the link provided above to review the pdf copy of the slides.

  • Treasurer’s Report (slides 3 – 10)
    • Dec – Feb Monthly Invoices to Members report included a reminder that higher energy sales for the month typically results in lower average costs for the month
  • President and CEO Report (slides 11 – 17)
    • By FY26/27 IMEA will have 20% renewables with the additional comment by the President and CEO of “more than the state’s investor-owned programs have done … at a fraction of the cost”
      [NOTE: In my opinion, this is an example of IMEA misleading information in making this comparison without also telling the full story of IMEA’s use of non-IMEA generation resources and arbitraged RECs. It’s “cherry picking” to tell a very one-sided IMEA narrative. Refer to example d in section 1 of our Lack of Transparency whitepaper as well as the Dec 12, 2024 board meeting highlights report for further information on IMEA’s practices involving RECs and renewable energy claims.]
    • The Carmi city council unanimously approved new IMEA contract on Tuesday (Feb18). The Carmi contract will be formally accepted by IMEA at the April board meeting making 25 of 32 that have renewed with the exact same contract language
    • March 26 exec board meeting is canceled and will be replaced by generation committee and transmission committee meetings.
    • New FERC chairman, Mark Christie, has been named.  Described as having been an “objector” to most recent FERC filings on how RTO markets are treated and how to pay for transmission costs
    • Provided a recap in slide 15 of long-term transmission ownership opportunities with MISO Tranche 2.1 that had been discussed at the January exec board meeting
    • Provided the IMEA Goals for FY 25/26 (described in item #1 above)
  • Legislative and Regulatory Report (slides 18 -20)
    • 3 primary lobbying goals for APPA rally in Washington DC described as
      • Protect tax-exempt bonds/ financing
      • Protect direct pay of tax credits for renewables
      • Advocate for tax credits legislation for U.S. transformers to address national “crisis” (continuing supply chain issues and corresponding issues of availability, cost, etc.)
  • Consideration of Closed Session Minutes (slide 21)
    • Board approved continuing confidentiality need and the continued withholding from the public of the closed session minutes of Nov 6-7, 2019 [over 5 years now], Jun 17, 2021, and Nov 9-10, 2022 per the recommendation of the IMEA general counsel that these minutes “reflect pre-decisional power supply matters that are still under consideration”
    • Board approved releasing closed session minutes of June 27, 2024 and Aug 29, 2024 per recommendation that they be released
  • Operations (slides 22 -24)
    • PJM 26/27 & 27/28 capacity auctions set a cap of ~$325/MW-day and a floor of ~$175/MW-day per agreement with the State of Pennsylvania. Few people are taking note of that floor (compared to the 24/25 price of $29.50)
    • PJM set a new winter peak record of 145,000 MW. The previous was 143,700 in Feb 2015
    • Upcoming IMEA Member seminars/webinars includes an April 2025 on IMEA Member Distributed Energy Resources (DER) RTO Reporting Requirement
  • Trimble County (slide 25)
    • 2024 performance:
      • Equivalent Availability Factor (EAF) 81.25 YTD
      • Equivalent Forced Outage Rate (EFOR) 5.06 YTD
    • Unit 1 has been at “full load” since Sept. And also “small derate” in Jan 2025 due to a stuck control valve
    • Unit 2 was “derated slightly” due to cooling tower pump repair in late Dec. And also “full load” since Jan 23, 2025 with no issues
    • TC staff continues to work toward stack refurbishment. Engineering and Design study to be completed by Summer 2025
  • Prairie State (slide 26)
    • 2024 performance:
      • Equivalent Availability Factor (EAF) 82.51 YTD
      • Equivalent Forced Outage Rate (EFOR) 13.02 YTD
    • Unit 1 had two outages due to boiler tube leaks. And also “full load” since Jan 26
    • Unit 2 “full load” since Jan 6
    • Carbon capture – no updates

[NOTE: it’s interesting, in my opinion, to observe the change in IMEA reporting on Prairie State and Trimble County. such that the report now provides this “full load since ”. Is it a coincidence that this change has occurred after our posting online on the number of days that Prairie State and Trimble County units were concurrently down during December?
– 12 days in December when both Prairie State Units 1 and 2 were not generating electricity, and
– For 7 of those 12 days, Trimble County Unit 2 was not generating any electricity either.]

  • Local Transmission and Generation (slides 27 – 29)
    • Working with Rock Falls so that non-dedicated units may become dedicated to IMEA
    • Staff will seek IMEA Board approval to complete the Princeton/Peru transmission joint ownership and operating agreements process by mid-2025 [We should expect further details and discussion at the March Transmission Committee meeting,]
  • Solar Projects (slides 30 -34)
    • Marshall and Princeton waiting on tracking software before commercial operation date (COD) can be declared.
    • Oglesby still on track for spring 2025
    • USDA Pace Loans projects in holding pattern due to President Trump’s Executive Order pausing IRA disbursements
    • Verbal only mention [not in slides] that the 150MW Bee Hollow solar project is on track for end of 2026
  • Legal Report (slides 35 – 40)
    • [Leaving it to you who are interested to look at the slides]
  • APPA Travel Expenditures Approval (slide 63)
    • Board approved travel to APPA rally in Washington DC [for apparently a printed list of attendees which we will see when the minutes are approved and posted after the next board meeting in April].
  • Authorization to Study Export of Member Gen (slides 64 -66)
    • Board approved authorization for the President and CEO to enter into agreements with Ameren to study the potential export of member generation to the grid

—–

Repeating my ask to please make it a priority to attend IMEA board meetings. IMEA does not provide us with recordings of the meetings, and there is no requirement to do so under current law. Your attendance supports our efforts to put the “public” back into “public power”, and also helps to “trust but verify” what I write in these highlights reports

  • The IMEA board meetings webpage tells us the next scheduled exec board and regular full board meetings are scheduled for April 23 -24.
    https://imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp
  • Webinar registration info is posted within the IMEA meeting agenda document files, which have typically been posted by IMEA by Friday of the preceding week.
  • The board meeting packets have been showing up late Monday or early Tuesday on the IMEA webpage, even though IMEA apparently provides the IMEA board member reps their copy of the packet a full week ahead of the meetings.
  • As mentioned from the President and CEO report, the March 26 exec board meeting is canceled, and will be replaced by meetings of the Generation Committee and the Transmission Committee. We should expect to see meeting agendas at:
    https://imea.org/IMEA%20Committee%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Exec Board Meeting Jan 22, 2025 “Highlights”

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

—

Hello Energy,

Sharing my “highlights” from the Wednesday Jan 22 IMEA Exec Board Meeting:

  1. Upcoming Transmission Committee Meeting
  2. Potential Further Transmission Ownership Opportunities
  3. Bond Refinancing
  4. Status Update on IMEA Member Contract Extensions
  5. Some Additional Noteworthy Items

Note: There is no regular full board meeting this month, only an Exec Board meeting.

The link to a copy of this meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TD7uD9HdvwSKufOE2L7jl-SbQsNEgnJL/view

The links to the CLEAN historical collection of board meeting slides, agendas, minutes, resolutions, monthly financial reports, etc. is posted on the CLEAN Sources and Resource webpage:
https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources/imea-board-and-other-imea-records/

The link to IMEA’s board meetings webpage is:
https://imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

IMEA is now keeping older meeting records posted on the website, including meeting packets. But slides are not posted on the IMEA website. And IMEA provides no recordings of the meetings, only minutes after approved at the subsequent meeting.

1. Upcoming Transmission Committee Meeting (slide 4)

  • The IMEA Transmission Committee will meet, probably in April or May, to review the logistics and other considerations of IMEA becoming a MISO Transmission Owner by signing a Joint Ownership Agreement with Ameren this summer
  • Board resolution and request for approval are planned for the June board meeting

Note: Further details on IMEA becoming a 25% minority owner of a 23-mile section of Ameren Illinois transmission system are in the slides and highlights report of the Dec 12, 2024 board meeting

2. Potential Further Transmission Ownership Opportunities (slide 5)

  • The IMEA CEO described that over the last couple of weeks Ameren has approached IMEA again, this time with a much bigger transmission ownership opportunity in the long term.
  • The opportunities are related to Illinois projects in the MISO Tranche 2.1 grid expansion
  • Staff will continue to look into these opportunities and report back to the board.
  • Copy/pasting several bullets from slide 5:
  • These projects are at least 7-8 years away
  • MISO estimates the rate impact (from Tranche 2.1) to load is $5/MWh to all ratepayers
  • This is an additional strategic planning issue that staff continues to track and look for opportunities to limit the transmission rate increases

3. Bond Refinancing (slides 25 -26)

  • The plan is to refinance the remaining 10 years of IMEA’s tax exempt debt from 2025-2035
  • Refi will not extend bond obligation beyond current IMEA member contract
  • Expected to save IMEA members $20 million over 10 years
  • Verbally estimated to be roughly 50 cents per MWh over the next 10 years ($2 million savings per year divided by 4 million MWh per year)
  • Board resolution and request for approval planned for the February board meeting

4. Status Update on IMEA Member Contract Extensions (Not on Slides)

  • In other new business, prior to going into closed session, the IMEA CEO responded to the request to provide a status update on new contracts:
  • Carmi: The IMEA CEO and Legislative Director met with Carmi City Council the previous evening. Carmi ”looks to be favorable”.
  • Mascoutah: “I’m also pleased to report to you that last night, the Mascoutah City Council unanimously approved signing that contract as well.”
  • 24 approved: In the February 2025 board meeting, IMEA will have at least 24 Members who have approved
  • 8 remain: IMEA continues to have conversations with the remaining 8 members. “They are all aware of that April 30 open season deadline”.

5. Some additional noteworthy items

Note: Here are some but not all noteworthy items for everyone, so please review the slides.

  • President and CEO Reports (slides 3 – 5):
  • [Not on slides] Mark Christie has been named as the new the chairman FERC. No new policy announcements yet.
  • IMEA filled the Manager of Energy Markets  and Settlements position
  • IMEA is still looking to fill a new Electric Data Analyst position
  • Generation and Transmission Committees will meet in March to May timeframe. Transmission Committee described above in item 1.
  • Potential further long-term transmission opportunities described above in item 2
  • Legislative and Regulatory Report (slide 6):
  • Illinois HB587 skinny energy omnibus legislation passed which includes provisions for an ICC workshop to develop recommendations for an IPA procurement of battery storage
  • Upcoming APPA legislative rally described as having two top items: protecting tax-exempt financing and protecting direct pay of tax credits
  • Operations (slides 7 -9):
  • PJM Delivery Year 2026/2027 Base Residual Auction now scheduled for July 9
  • PJM board supports action on urgent grid reliability needs
  • MISO may require 343,000 MW of additional capacity by 2043, an average annual rate increase of 262%
  • MISO board approved Tranche 2.1, described as the largest grid expansion plan in US history
  • NERC’s 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment reports half its region is at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls over the next 5-10 year
  • Trimble County (slide 10):
  • After Unit 2 planned outage was completed on Dec 12 “slightly behind schedule”, the unit was derated “slightly” due to a cooling tower pump issue
  • FEED study for stack replacement still expected to be completed  summer 2025 with scope expanded “slightly”
  • Prairie State (slide 11):
  • Unit 1 had two outages after coming back online from a 12-day planned maintenance outage in December: a tube leak and an excitation transformer cooling issue
  • Unit 1 had another tube leak outage in January
  • Unit 2 came back online the first week of January, after the electrical fault was resolved by replacing the top stator bars
  • No updates on carbon capture
  • Solar Project Updates (slide 13 -17):
  • Marshall and Princeton energized in December; currently in testing phase; and awaiting installation of tracking software
  • Oglesby racking is complete; expected online in spring of 2025
  • SolAmerica USDA Pace solar projects received the initial funding commitment; projects include nearly 11MW total in Highland. Metrpolis, and Carmi + Chatham signed lease agreement for a 2.25MW project (serving as the alternative to Rantoul)
  • Legal (slides 18 – 24):
  • The following is only a partial list of cases described in the legal report:
  • MISO FERC filing (Docket ER25-579) proposes to increase Loss of Load value (penalty) from price cap of $3,500/MWh to $10,000/MWh for emergencies and load shed
  • ComEd FERC filing (Docket ER24-2890) on co-located load; Exelon companies responded on Dec 20, 2024 to FERC deficiency letter
  • IMEA is following 3 FERC cases involving PJM capacity auction prices; IMEA CEO Gaden gave a comment that it is supply and demand driving the price increases
  • PJM FERC filing (Docket ER25-712) proposes to fast-track 50 shovel ready projects in the PJM interconnection queue
  • PJM FERC filing (Docket ER25-783) proposes to expand credit review for bilateral capacity transactions; may impact IMEA’s future use of bilateral capacity transactions
  • The Exec Board approved going into closed session, as described in the agenda:
  • Calling for a motion to go into Executive Session for one of the following reasons:
  • Discussion of IMEA litigation
  • Discussion of the purchase, sale or delivery of electricity
  • Discussion of personnel matters

—–

The IMEA meeting schedule webpage tells us the next meeting is an Exec Board meeting on Feb 19, 2025 at 2:00PM, followed the next morning by a regular full board meeting Feb 20, 2025 at10:00AM.

Webinar means not having to commute to and from Springfield to attend. Webinar registration info is posted within the IMEA meeting agenda document files, which have typically been posted by IMEA by Friday of the preceding week.

Please remember that “open and transparent” IMEA does not provide us with recordings of the IMEA board meetings, and there is no requirement for IMEA to do so under current law.  When we advocate for public planning and transparency, showing up at board meetings can serve as an important sign that our actions match our words. You would then also have the opportunity to “trust but verify” these highlights reports.

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting Dec 12, 2024 “Highlights”

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: The posting below is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

Now also note that the City of Naperville has begun to publicly post its report on IMEA board meetings through the City Manager’s Memorandum process. Previously, the IMEA board meeting reports were shared with City Council through a non-public communication referred to as the Friday Confidential. Here is: MM – Dec. 19, 2024.

Hello Energy,

Sharing my “highlights” from the Thursday December 12 IMEA Board Meeting:

  1. Sustainability Plan Update
  2. Decommissioning Fund for Coal Plants Approval
  3. Transmission Ownership Update
  4. Prairie State – Legal and Operations
  5. Some Additional Noteworthy Items

The link to a copy of this meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1boJlwFb091jDcq1d-G3luohDDYbZjOsD/view

The links to the CLEAN historical collection of board meeting slides, agendas, minutes, resolutions, monthly financial reports, etc. is posted on the CLEAN Sources and Resource webpage:
https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources/imea-board-and-other-imea-records/

The link to IMEA’s board meetings webpage is:
https://imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp
IMEA is now keeping older meeting records posted on the website, including meeting packets, but not the slides.

1. Sustainability Plan Update (slides 72 -83)

  • IMEA provided the first annual update / progress report on the IMEA Sustainability Plan (which is the plan that had been formally adopted at last Dec’s IMEA board meeting and then posted on the IMEA website at: https://imea.org/IMEA%20Transition%20to%20the%20Future.html
  • Slide 73 documents that the 130 MW solar goal has been exceeded
  • Slide 75 has further info on the 2025 battery storage study

Note: Our Naperville electric director asked clarifying questions at the previous day’s Exec Board meeting. IMEA further clarified that:

  • 177.5 MW of additional solar has been contracted
  • The battery study report is planned to be completed by the Dec 2025 IMEA board meeting (which is when we should anticipate another annual update / progress report on the sustainability plan)
  • Summer of 2026 is targeted for the “public process” development of the next sustainability plan

2. Decommissioning Fund for Coal Plants Approval (slides 57 – 59)

  • The IMEA board approved resolution 24-12-934 to begin collecting for decommissioning funds for Prairie State and Trimble County
  • At the Aug board meeting, the board had agreed with the recommendation to collect the “majority” of the funds needed by October 1, 2035
  • Collection starts on May 1, 2025 and runs through April 31, 2035
  • Initial estimate of the amount to be collected is $21.7 million, assuming a 3% interest rate for the funds held in the Decommissioning Account
  • Average member residential customer bill impact is projected to be $0.47 per month
  • Plans are based on Prairie State retirement in 2045, TC Unit 1 in 2045, and TC Unit 2 in 2050

Note: As in the IMEA Sustainability Plan, IMEA continues to report a 2050 retirement for Trimble County Unit 2 without telling the full story that other sources apparently are not in alignment with that 2050 date:

LG&E and KU plan to burn coal for another four decades
https://www.lpm.org/news/2022-01-12/lg-e-and-ku-plan-to-burn-coal-for-another-four-decades
… but it still plans to continue burning coal and natural gas in Kentucky for another three decades, slowly retiring the remaining 11 coal-fired generating units until it finally closes the last one in 2066.
That plant is the Trimble County Generating Station. LG&E completed it in 2011. Sinclair, vice president of energy supply and analysis for LG&E KU, said it could be one of the last remaining coal plants in the country at that time. 

2023 PPL Corporation Sustainability Report (PPL owns LG&E and KU)
https://www.pplweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PPL_Corporation_2023-Sustainability-Report_FINAL.pdf
> We have committed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
> We are on track to achieve interim targets of 70% reduction by 2035 and 80% reduction by 2040.
> We have committed to not burn unabated coal by 2050.

3. Transmission Ownership Update (slides 11 – 20)

  • IMEA has been offered the opportunity to become a minority 25% owner of a project involving a 23-mile section of the Ameren Illinois transmission system
  • The project will increase system reliability for IMEA members Princeton and Peru.
  • ATXI is the Ameren Illinois transmission company that is the majority owner.
  • Proposed agreement looks similar to Ameren Missouri’s agreement with Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA). MPUA is also one of the joint owners of Prairie State.
  • IMEA seeks to lower the overall costs of transmission to IMEA members by earning transmission revenues to lower the net costs of transmission to all IMEA members.
  • IMEA revenues will come from the MISO/FERC Attachment “O” cost recovery methodology with an expected rate of return near 10%
  • $15 – $20 million in ownership costs are expected to be funded through tax-exempt bonds, where the funds to repay the bonds would also come from those Attachment “O” funds and not from the IMEA members.
  • IMEA will keep the board informed of timeline and action steps as needed

During further questions/discussion:

  • There will be further “robust conversation” with the board at the April board meeting
  • IMEA has been looking for transmission opportunities for a long time, and this is the “first real one we’ve been offered”
  • IMEA will provide a pro forma estimate of the costs and benefits
  • The net revenues will provide a net credit to IMEA’s bucket of costs for transmission that are socialized among all IMEA members
  • Rate of return provided by MISO/FERC Attachment “O” is based on investment costs

4. Prairie State – Operations and Legal (slides 30 and 40)

Operations:

  • Unit 1 had unplanned (“forced”) outages in October and November
  • Unit 2 had 2 forced outages in October
  • Unit 1 now has a planned outage, expected back online this weekend
  • Unit 2 had a planned outage in late November and then failed to come back online due to a trip cause by a generator protective relay. Now expected to be offline for the next 2-3 weeks
  • No updates on carbon capture

Legal:

  • In the Prairie State vs Illinois EPA case (PCB No. 25-11), the verbal news (not on slide 40)  shared that last Thursday the Pollution Control Board (PCB) ordered  that the Illinois EPA (IEPA) has 1 year to complete the review of the permit and 2 years to issue a final permit
  • In the Sierra Club vs. Prairie State case (Case No. 3:23-cv-00919), on Nov 20 Prairie State filed a motion to stay proceeding

Note: Based on these above Prairie State outages and the outages reported at Trimble County (slide 29), it suggests there have been times in Nov-Dec that all of IMEA’s coal-fired generators have been down (and the lights did not go out). US EPA Air Markets data for Nov-Dec will probably not be available to confirm the concurrent outages until sometime in Q2 next year.

5. Some additional noteworthy items

Note: Here are some but not all noteworthy items for everyone, so please review the slides.

  • President and CEO Reports (slides 7 – 10)
  • Winnetka’s new IMEA board member representative, Nick Narthi, was welcomed. Nick replaces Brian Keys who is retiring at end of year.
  • IMEA President & CEO chaired Nov’s APPA Climate Change Committee in where the discussions included recently proposed US EPA regs on natural gas and long-term reliability concerns
  • IMEA expects to present, at the at the Feb 2025 board meeting, a final resolution for approval of the IMEA bonds refinance. Plan is to refinance the remaining 10 years of debt over the same 10 year period, saving $20-25 million
  • Legislative and Regulatory Report (slide 21)
  • Illinois Lame Duck session is scheduled for Jan 2-7
  • Net metering meetings on-going
  • December meeting scheduled with sponsor of HB5021
  • Operations (slides 22 -28)
  • PJM 2026/2027 base residual auction delayed 6 months to adjust market rules to address prices and uncertainty
  • MISO planning resource auction: window opens 3/26/25 and results will be posted 4/28/25
  • IMEA staff working with MISO on Load Modifying Resource (LMR) changes that will impact IMEA Behind-the-Meter (BTM) resources. New filing on rules now expected sometime in Q1 not January
  • PJM is changing the way it communicates wind curtailments. Work continues with all parties, including IMEA operations
  • Trimble County (slide 29)
  • Unit 2 planned outage complete “slightly behind schedule”
  • FEED study for stack replacement to be completed by summer 2025
  • Preliminary results of FEED study “expanded scope of work” for FY 2027 and beyond
  • IMEA Flora Capital Project (slide 34)
  • Cost estimate for a $500K control system update to be added to the IMEA 2025-2026 capital budget
  • Solar Project Updates (slide 36 – 39)
  • Marshall and Princeton expected to be online by end of 2024, Oglesby in spring of 2025
  • Verbal only update of the SolAmerica USDA Pace solar projects and growing concerns about the funding from USDA given the coming changes in Federal administrations
  • Legal (slides 40 – 43)
  • Prairie State related cases described above in item 4
  • IMEA continues to closely monitor cases involving PJM co-location of generators and data centers case for impact on IMEA. Rulings potentially could  impact IMEA member resources in Winnetka and Rock Falls.
  • IMEA REC Program (slides 45 -47)
  • IMEA reports producing a total of 342,348 RECs from IMEA resources in REC Planning Year 2024
  • IMEA retired the same amount of less expensive RECs associated with other resources in Illinois and neighboring states, saving IMEA $10.47

Note: IMEA’s handling of RECs to be able to make legal claims of renewable energy is described in our CLEAN Lack of Transparency document. Each year we also request from IMEA the detailed list of retired RECs and post the details in our IMEA RECs directory.

  • Demand Response Program and changes (slides 48 – 56)
  • Revised Risk Management Policy (slides 61 – 63)

Note: The risk management policy details in resolution 24-12-936 can serve as a resource to learn more about IMEA responsibilities in PJM and MISO. Copies of IMEA resolutions are included in the IMEA board meeting packets now posted on IMEA’s website. Our CLEAN collection of historical and current resolutions, once adopted signed, is in our IMEA Board Resolutions directory

  • Electric Efficiency and Conservation Program and changes (slides 64 – 67)
  • EV Charging and EV Program and changes (slides 68 – 71)

—–

As mentioned earlier, there also was an IMEA Exec Board meeting held on the previous day Wed Dec 11. When there’s an Exec Board meeting on the day preceding the regular board meeting, I don’t write a highlights report on the Exec Board meeting. The CLEAN historical collection of board meeting records does include agendas and minutes of all these meetings too.

And finally, webinar means not having to devote a whole day commuting to and from Springfield to attend. Again, I urge you to please make it a priority to attend IMEA board meetings. IMEA does not provide us with recordings of the meetings, and there is no requirement to do so under current law. When we advocate for transparency, showing up at board meetings is an important sign that our actions match our words.

  • The IMEA board meetings webpage tells us the next scheduled meeting is an Exec Board meeting on Jan 22, 2025 at 10:00AM. Next full board meeting is Feb 20, 2025 10:00AM, preceded by an Exec Board meeting on Feb 19, 2025 at 2:00PM.
  • Webinar registration info is posted within the IMEA meeting agenda document files, which have typically been posted by IMEA by Friday of the preceding week.
  • The board meeting packets have been showing up late Monday or early Tuesday on the IMEA webpage, even though IMEA apparently provides the IMEA board member reps their copy of the packet a full week ahead of the meetings.

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting Oct 24, 2024 “Commentary”

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: Apparently IMEA will not provide us a copy of the video for everyone to watch, so I am now publishing this citizen commentary on IMEA’s Resource Planning presentation. It represents a copy/paste and edited consolidation of two emails to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original emails change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

Instead of a “highlights” report, my two emails to the NEST Energy Committee were my commentary on the IMEA board meeting’s Resource Planning presentation by the IMEA President and CEO.
We had received a copy of the slides in advance of the board meeting with the ask that we watch IMEA’s board meeting presentation to give the slides “proper context” before we offered comments.
I had waited to post with the expectation that IMEA would provide full transparency with a recording, so that all who could not attend the board meeting including our city council would have the same “proper context” opportunity to also use to evaluate my commentary as well as any by NEST too.
Please be aware that IMEA is not legally required to provide recordings of board meetings. And now IMEA is telling me in writing that no such record exists, even though the board meeting webinar indicated that a recording had started for a meeting that was set to be recorded.

Energy,

At this time, I’ve decided not to provide a report of last Thursday’s [Oct 24] IMEA board meeting highlights.  Instead, this is my personal commentary on that IMEA board meeting’s resource planning presentation. It represents my opinions, notes, and citizen knowledge of IMEA.

A copy of the resource planning slides extracted from the full set of board meeting slides is available here. I did not try to compare against the slides we previously received the week before the board meeting.

In my opinion, the presentation at the end of a long meeting was too fast and too full of one-sided stories that I’m not gonna repeat. Please, I encourage you to discuss with others who attended the webinar. And I also ask that you join me in making your own request to Naperville and IMEA to provide public access to IMEA’s video recording of the board meeting’s presentation.

My 5-part commentary [originally 4 with part 5 added in the second email]:

First and foremost: IMEA continues to offer us no apparent efforts or plans to consider alternatives that would support turning down the dial on that coal-fired ownership generation.

  • Nothing is apparently planned until such time as required by State or Federal legislation or regulations. 
  • We also learned earlier in the board meeting that Prairie State continues to pursue funding of the carbon capture “experiment”.  The Prairie State report slide listed: “Potentially explore the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) for funding for carbon capture technology (NOI for funding issued by DOE)”

Second: IMEA continues to claim that IMEA makes resource decisions in open and transparent meetings. But I’ll assert that they are “forgetting” to tell the whole story when … .

When omitting mention of:

  • The apparent lack of involvement and opportunities for input from our elected city council representatives, not to mention citizen stakeholders who are the “public” in public power.
  • Apparently closed committee meetings in the development of the IMEA sustainability plan which was publicly revealed to us at the end of October 2023 IMEA board meeting after it was already developed
  • Closed planning meetings such as the 2 days of closed IMEA board meetings in Nov 2019 for which the full meeting minutes continue to be voted by the IMEA board to be withheld from the public nearly 5 years later

Third: With the addition of the latest 150 MW solar project, there is no apparent room in the resource portfolio for further clean energy resources without …

  • without turning down the dial on that coal-fired generation, or
  • without an increase in IMEA power supply demand to be able to add to the resource portfolio.

My notes recorded a statement by the IMEA CEO that the IMEA portfolio now allows you Members to watch and wait as technologies develop before choosing new resources. Seems to me that also tells us in Naperville that we should also watch and wait before signing any IMEA contract extension.

Fourth: As I explain further, IMEA’s description of PJM accredited capacity requirements seems to also leave out the whole story.

And it may be highly misleading when using language such as: PJM requirements  to have maximum peak load capabilities plus reserves. But I also acknowledge that I could be wrong in my understanding, and perhaps my research as an amateur citizen may be faulty. I’ve shared my research with our Naperville Electric Director, and it’s my understanding that he will discuss with IMEA. I’ll share with you what I hear further.

  • It’s my assertion that it’s an IMEA business decision whether/how to hedge (offset) the PJM market prices for capacity. These are costs that IMEA must pay through the PJM Locational Reliability Charge. Instead, IMEA words seem to state that it is PJM requirement that IMEA have the accredited capacity to meet IMEA peak load plus reserves.
  • My research plus evidence from IMEA’s Sept 2023 PJM settlement statement tells me that it’s IMEA’s responsibility as a Load Serving Entity (LSE) to pay for its share of the costs of the accredited capacity resources that are committed through the PJM capacity market processes. These processes are referred to as PJM’s Reliability Performance Model (RPM).  And the costs are paid by all PJM LSEs, including IMEA, through the PJM Locational Reliability Charge which is calculated using summer peak
  • An LSE may choose (but is not required) to offset all or part of the Locational Reliability Charge. One way is to offer owned resources in the capacity market and/or to use bilateral contracts to obtain RPM Auction credits. These credits offset the Locational Reliability Charge. In the Sept 2023 IMEA PJM settlements statement, there was such an RPM Auction credit of $447,853 that served to offset a substantial portion of the Locational Reliability Charge of $532,859
  • For IMEA, it is a business decision whether, how, and how much to hedge (offset) the market price for capacity as reflected in the Locational Reliability Charge. And in times of volatile capacity market prices, there may be even further reasons to choose to do so. But it is not a PJM requirement that IMEA must acquire accredited capacity. And it is not a PJM requirement that would directly prevent IMEA from adding renewable energy resources to its portfolio.

At the end of the day, IMEA does not tell us the whole story of accredited capacity nor does IMEA provide continued transparency to the related PJM charges and credits that are hidden/buried inside IMEA Purchased Power totals in the IMEA financial statements.

Further sources and details on IMEA’s PJM accredited capacity requirements and PJM charges to IMEA for its LSE share of accredited capacity are listed at the end of this email.

Fifth: In the concluding part of his presentation, the IMEA President and CEO repeated the disinformation on IMEA keeping the lights on.  

  • It’s disinformation that we have debunked and that I believe we must continue to debunk because apparently it’s still useful and effective for IMEA to keep repeating.
  • As he concluded his presentation, the IMEA President and CEO talked about IMEA managing the energy markets and the times when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
  • Then he described IMEA staff in the IMEA control room 24 x 7 every day of the year “optimizing which resource  … the best cost … and keep the lights on for all 32 of our members … for the long term”.
  • Please I urge all of you to keep refuting this IMEA disinformation. It’s PJM and Naperville Electric that keep the lights on in Naperville, not IMEA.

Further below are resources to refute IMEA keeping the lights on:

—

Ending this email with a repeat of my ask that you discuss with others who attended the webinar.

And please also request a copy of the recording. Didn’t we hear that this is supposed to be open and transparent IMEA?

Thanks.

Greg

Further sources and details on IMEA’s PJM accredited capacity requirements and PJM charges to IMEA for its LSE share of accredited capacity:

Open Access Transmission Tariff
Attachment DD
Reliability Pricing Model
5.1 Introduction
https://agreements.pjm.com/oatt/5141

In accordance with the Reliability Assurance Agreement, each Load Serving Entity is obligated to pay a Locational Reliability Charge for each Zone in which it serves load based on the Daily Unforced Capacity Obligation of its loads in such Zone.  An LSE may offset the Locational Reliability charge for a Delivery Year, in whole or in part, by: (a) Self-Supply of Capacity Resources in the Base Residual Auction or an Incremental Auction; (b) offering and clearing Capacity Resources in the Base Residual Auction or an Incremental Auction (but only to the extent of the additional resources committed to meet Unforced Capacity Obligations through such Incremental Auction); (c) receiving payments from Capacity Transfer Rights; or (d) offering and clearing Qualifying Transmission Upgrades in the Base Residual Auction.

Reliability Assurance Agreement
Schedule 8
Determination of Unforced Capacity Obligations
https://agreements.pjm.com/raa/4176

A. For each billing month during a Delivery Year, the Daily Unforced Capacity Obligation of a Party that has not elected the FRR Alternative for such Delivery Year shall be determined on a daily basis for each Zone as follows:
Daily Unforced Capacity Obligation = OPL x Final Zonal RPM Scaling Factor x FPR
Where:
OPL = Obligation Peak Load, defined as the daily summation of the weather-adjusted coincident summer peak, last preceding the Delivery Year, of the end-users in such Zone (net of operating Behind The Meter Generation, but not to be less than zero) for which such Party was responsible on that billing day, as determined in accordance with the procedures set forth in the PJM Manuals, and as adjusted further to include the Obligation Peak Load associated with any Large Load Adjustment that may be allocated to the Party
Final Zonal RPM Scaling Factor = the factor determined as set forth in sections B and C of this Schedule
FPR = the Forecast Pool Requirement

PJM Manual 18: PJM Capacity Market
https://www.pjm.com/directory/manuals/m18/index.html#about.html

Two line items in IMEA’s Sept 2023 PJM settlements statement:

Charges for IMEA’s share of the costs of the accredited capacity resources that are committed through the PJM capacity market processes which may be offset by credits from the RPM Auction for self-supplied resources (owned and contracted resources)

Locational Reliability Charge of $532,859.70

From PJM Manual 18:
All LSEs pay a Locational Reliability Charge equal to their Daily Unforced Capacity Obligation in a zone times the applicable Final Zonal Capacity Price.
LocationalReliabilityCℎarge = DailyUCAPOblig * FinalZonalCapacityPrice
Each LSE that serves load in a PJM Zone or load outside PJM using PJM resources (Non-Zone Network Load) during the Delivery Year is responsible for paying a Locational Reliability Charge equal to their Daily Unforced Capacity Obligation in a Zone times the applicable Final Zonal Capacity Price for that Delivery Year.

My calculations to “unwind” / determine the average daily IMEA capacity obligation:
2023/2024 Final Zonal Capacity Price for ComEd: $34.18 MW-day
$532,859.70 divided by 30 days in Sept = $17,761.99 per day (avg for Sept)
$17,761.99   divided by $34.18 MW-day = 519.66 MW per day (avg daily unforced capacity obligation for Sept)

RPM Auction credit of $447,853.80

From PJM Manual 18:
RPMAuctionCredits = MWClearedLDA * RCPLDA
Each generation, demand, energy efficiency, or QTU resource provider that clears Capacity Performance sell offer segments in an RPM Auction will receive a Daily Auction Credit equal to the total MW amount that cleared in Capacity Performance sell offer segments times the applicable LDA  resource clearing price in such RPM Auction for the entire Delivery Year.

My calculations to “unwind” / determine the accredited capacity that cleared in the auction
2023 – 2024 BRA Resource Clearing Price (RCP) for Rest of RTO: $34.13 / MW-day
$447,853.80 / 30 days = $14,928.46 per day (avg for Sept)
$14,928.46  / $34.13 per MW-day = 437.40 MW-day (sold in the RPM auction)

Resources to refute IMEA keeping the lights on:

IMEA General Counsel’s words at the Winnetka IMEA presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NpC9Fzbz8o&t=1981

“..and when the RTOs were first created
they really were thought of as controlling the wires
and controlling discriminatory issues about the wires

but what they really turned into is protecting the reliability of the wires
making sure there’s power flowing through the wires

and the way that they decided to do that was
to start an energy market and a capacity market
to control how the generators that connect to the wires are dispatched

so that we have a constant continuous flow of electrons flowing across the grid

so the grid doesn’t fall down and the lights don’t go out

so the RTOs essentially these days do all that stuff …”

PJM’s 3 priorities webpage with priority #1: Keeping the Lights On
https://learn.pjm.com/three-priorities

Al Karvelis’ Aug 20 public comments at city council.
https://youtu.be/R1UzGX23gOQ

My 3-part public comments in 2023 at city council:

IMEA Board Meeting Aug 29, 2024 “Highlights”

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

Hello Energy,

Rushing a bit to finish this report on a holiday weekend, so I apologize for any errors in my haste. Your eyes and the slides will keep me honest.

Sharing my “highlights” from the Thursday August 29 IMEA Board Meeting:

  1. 3 more Member contract renewals
  2. Update on 150MW utility scale solar project
  3. Discussion of decommissioning fund for coal plants
  4. Legal report on Federal court matters:
    Sierra Club vs Prairie State, and
    New Federal EPA Final Rule on CO2 Emissions
  5. Some additional noteworthy items,
    includes Prairie State, Trimble, audited financials, and more

The link to a copy of this meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19WtKl8PTE_sxe30CKXg2iFyKQVDiezfm/view

The link to the CLEAN historical collection of board meeting slides, agendas, minutes, resolutions, etc. is posted on the CLEAN Sources and Resource webpage:
https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources/

The link to IMEA’s board meetings webpage is:
https://imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

1.  3 more Member contract renewals (slides 67 – 69)

  • The IMEA board adopted resolutions #24-08-924 through #24-08-926 to formally accept and approve the new contracts of Caryle, Red Bud, and Riverton

[Note: 23 of 32 Members have now approved new contracts vial local ordinances, followed by formal acceptance and approval of the IMEA Board:

  • 10 were accepted and approved at the April 27 board meeting: Princeton, Casey, Marshall, Altamont, Bushnell, Flora, Greenup, Roodhouse, Rantoul, and Oglesby
  • 10 were accepted and approved at the June 27 board meeting: Breese, Rock Falls, Farmer City, Sullivan, Waterloo, Highland, Bethany, Chatham, Metropolis, and Freeburg]

2.  Update on 150MW utility scale solar project (slide 74)

  • IMEA received the vendor’s draft of a long, in-depth PPA proposal on July 22
  • IMEA is working through the details and meeting weekly with the vendor
  • IMEA expects to reach substantial agreement on outstanding issues and terms, so that it plans to seek formal board approval at the October 2024 board meeting
  • The board also went into closed session to discuss some of the outstanding issues

3.  Discussion of decommissioning fund for coal plants  (slides 33 – 37)

  • IMEA proposes a Decommissioning Fund where funds will be collected from Members from May 2025 until 2035
  • IMEA says that it is a prudent utility practice to start collecting funds now to prepared for the final plant retirement obligations of Prairie State and Trimble County
  • Prairie State:
    • Set to retire in 2045 due to Illinois CEJA
    • IMEA’s 15.17% share of $168 Million in estimated decommissioning costs is $25.5 M in 2045 dollars
  • Trimble County:
    • “Unit 1 is slated to retired in 2045 – Unit 2 is currently slated to retire in 2050” [See note below with comment on the 2050 date for Unit 2]
    • IMEA’s 12.12% share of $90 Million in estimated decommissioning costs is $10.9 M in 2050 dollars
  • IMEA will budget to collect $2.17M per year and assume a 3% rate of return on the proceeds that are held, which is $0.57 per MWh added to the IMEA rate
  • It’s expected to increase Members’ average residential customer bill by less than 50 cents a month)
  • The board directed IMEA to prepare plans and a resolution for formal approval at the October or December 2024 board meeting

[Note:

  • The 5 IMEA slides contain additional information, and we should expect further details at the October board meeting.
  • That 2050 retirement date for Trimble County Unit 2 (also listed in the December IMEA Sustainability Plan) is apparently inconsistent with the majority owners planned 2066 retirement date as reported by Louisville Public Media:
    LG&E and KU plan to burn coal for another four decades
    https://www.lpm.org/news/2022-01-12/lg-e-and-ku-plan-to-burn-coal-for-another-four-decades
    ]

4.  Legal report on Federal court matters (slide 46)

  • Sierra Club vs Prairie State
    • Court denied Prairie State’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit
    • Response form Prairie State is due by September 23, 2024
    • Prairie State legal team analyzing options and strategy for next steps
  • New Federal EPA Final Rule on CO2 Emissions
    • Many legal challenges have been filed, including motions to Stay the new rules
    • Prairie State and IMEA CEO submitted Impact Declarations
    • All Motions for Stay were denied
    • US Supreme Court is now considering applications for Stay

5.  Some additional noteworthy items

  • President and CEO reports (slide 9 -13)
    • 70% of IMEA members are now pledged and an underlined list of 8 bullet points enumerating how “IMEA will be here to serve the needs of its members” (slide 10)
    • A list of agency updates since June (the previous board meeting), including Sept Exec Board meeting to be cancelled, and both Energy Efficiency committee and Member Generation committee requested to meet at IMEA offices (slide 12)
  • Closed minutes of Nov 6-7, 2019, June 17, 2021 and Nov 9-10, 2022 were again approved to continue to be restricted from the public.  Apr 27, 2023 and Dec 6, 2023 were released. (slide 17)
  • Operations – PJM (slides 18 -21)
    • PJM capacity auction prices for 2025/2026 Delivery Year were 833% higher than the 2024/2025 price of $28.92/MW-day
    • Impact to IMEA should be minimal due to IMEA long-term reliable resources and hedging
  • Operations – MISO (slides 22 – 26)
    • MISO concerns on thermal retirements and projections of insufficient long-term capacity
  • Operations – Wind (slides 27 -29)
    • Wind scheduling challenges because wind output is hard to forecast due to unpredictable weather patterns
  • Trimble County (slide 31)
    • Stack replacement design to be completed and construction timeline finalized in Spring 2025
    • Project to be completed in 2027-2028
    • IMEA share of costs is $10-11 Million, most already projected by IMEA
  • Prairie State (slide 32)
    • Fall planned outage moved to Nov-Dec
    • No further action on carbon capture
    • Prairie State staff is finalizing the 2025 budget with a proposed 2% increase in operating budget primarily due to insurance costs
  • Marshal and Princeton solar projects expected to be completed by end of year and Oglesby in spring 2025 (slides 42-44 Solar Project Update)
  • FERC has accepted MISO’s sloped demand curve, and rules are expected to increase the value of capacity (slide 47: Legal Report)
  • IMEA filed a limited project on MISO Resource Accreditation Requirements reform.(slide 48: Legal Report)
    • IMEA Member Generation  diesel Units would be penalized the same as natural gas units for natural gas winter performance problems
  • Presentation of completion of IMEA’s FY 2024 clean audit (slides 50-66)
  • Resolution #24-08-928 was approved to provide Winnetka a waiver on IMEA’s 1-year replacement policy (slide 73)
    • Winnetka is planning “to replace Unit #4 with two or three new generating units (estimated to be approximately 2,450 kW each)”
    • Current 1 year policy is inadequate and will likely be reviewed and update, so a waiver at this time was recommended.

—–

There was also an IMEA Exec Board meeting held on the previous day Wed Aug 28. When there are Exec Board meetings on the day preceding the regular Board of Directors meeting, the Exec Board agenda typically only covers items that are also included in the regular Board agenda. Therefore, I don’t spend limited time on providing a duplicative report on the Exec Board meeting. The CLEAN historical collection of board meeting records does include agendas and minutes of these meetings.

And finally no surprise that once again here’s my encouragement to attend IMEA board meetings. Public power also needs informed and knowledgeable citizens too. Webinar means not having to devote a whole day commuting to and from Springfield.

  • The IMEA’s board meetings webpage lets us know to mark our calendars for the next scheduled full IMEA Board Meeting on Oct 24, 2024 at 10:00AM, preceded by an Exec Board Meeting on Oct 23, 2024 at 2:00PM.
  • The webinar registration info is posted within the IMEA meeting agenda document file, typically posted at the end of the preceding week.
  • Also IMEA has now begun to publicly post the board meeting packet too. For this past week’s meetings, it was apparently posted in the afternoon/evening on Mon before the Wed/Thu meetings.

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting June 27, 2024 Highlights

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

Hello Energy,

Sharing my “highlights” from the Thursday June 27 IMEA Board Meeting:

  1. Next 10 Member contract renewals
  2. 150MW utility scale solar project
  3. Compensation for Member generation
  4. Legal report on US EPA Final Rule on CO2 Emissions
  5. Prairie State CCS
  6. Some additional noteworthy items

The link to this meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AKbt_DLMrj_aQw0wMDvX-KSIbshwwO9Z/view

There are no recordings offered by IMEA of IMEA board meetings, unlike our Naperville city council and many other public bodies.  The meeting minutes will become available after approved at the next IMEA board meeting.

Slides, agendas, minutes, etc.  from this meeting and previous board meeting are posted in the CLEAN google drive.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jWacdmtQ4yPRzkbUAjKWz4RVuwDzUEDM

This meeting’s slides and agenda files begin with the file prefix 2024-06-27_

The above link to the CLEAN IMEA Board Meetings google drive is also posted in the CLEAN Sources and Resource webpage:
https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources

1. Next 10 Member contract renewals (slides 67 – 76)

  • The IMEA board adopted resolutions #24-06-913 through #24-06-922 to formally accept and approve the next 10 Members who have approved their new Power Sales Contracts via local ordinances:  Breese, Rock Falls, Farmer City, Sullivan, Waterloo, Highland, Bethany, Chatham, Metropolis, and Freeburg
  • During the President and CEO report (earlier in the meeting), it was reported that several more Members have plans to approve in their upcoming city council meetings
  • The first 10 Members accepted and approved at the previous April 27th board meeting were:  Princeton, Casey, Marshall, Altamont, Bushnell, Flora, Greenup, Roodhouse, Rantoul, and Oglesby

2. 150MW utility scale solar project (slides 81 – 97)

  • The board approved IMEA proceeding with negotiations towards a final power purchase agreement with the proposed developer of a 150MW utility scale solar project in the Ameren IL region
  • IMEA expects to bring the finalized PPA back to the board for approval at the Aug meeting.
  • IMEA signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so the project and developer were not publicly revealed
  • Expected Commercial Operation Date (COD) is Dec 31, 2026
  • IMEA originally planned 100MW, but apparently needed to take the entire project’s 150MW or lose the project to a data center that the developer said was willing to take the entire 150MW
  • Solar was chosen over wind because solar best fits the IMEA deficit need for capacity and energy during summer months
  • Slides 82 – 85 provide graphs on the IMEA generation deficit with this project. Note that the curves above the red zero line represent the deficits IMEA is filling, and the curves below the red zero line represent surplus.
  • Any excess generation is expected to be manageable between 2027 and 2030. 2030 is when the Lee-DeKalb Wind PPA ends
  • The expected capacity factor for this solar project is 23% – 25%. When using 25%, the expected annual output is 328,500 MWh

3. Compensation for Member generation (slides 37 – 46)

  • IMEA is reviewing a transition to higher compensation levels for Member generation
  • 19 of 32 IMEA Members have Member generation contracts with IMEA
  • Existing compensation may be insufficient to upkeep the facilities in the future
  • IMEA approach intends to balance Members’ ownership costs and value these resources provide to the overall IMEA portfolio
  • Considering gradually increasing the production component and gradually create a floor as in the new 2035 Capacity Purchase Agreement
  • IMEA staff will work with the IMEA Generation Committee and expect to bring final recommendations to the full board in October

4. Legal report on US EPA Final Rule on CO2 Emissions (slide 51)

  • Copy/pasting from the slide:
    • Federal EPA says that Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration (CCS) technology is considered Best System of Emissions Reduction (BSER)
      • Under the new rules, all baseload coal plants will need to dramatically cut carbon emissions or retire early
      • Coal plants planning on retiring by 2039 must be equipped with 40% natural gas co-firing capability by 2030
      • Existing baseload coal plants will need to reduce carbon emissions by 90% by January 1, 2032
  • Legal challenges have been filed by 27 state Attorney Generals and other groups
  • Both IMEA and Prairie State have submitted impact declarations

5. Prairie State CCS (slide 34)

  • Copy/pasting from the slide:
    • PSGC staff continues to work towards due diligence to explore all options on potential Carbon Capture opportunity
      • Given the recent EPA regulations, owners continue to evaluate options (due diligence)
      • No progress has been made
      • No commitment from PSGC or the owners

6. Some additional noteworthy items

  • Average cost for FY 2023/2024 increased 2.5% to $82.56/MWh, primarily due to transmission cost increases (slide 6: Member Sales Report)
  • 20 of 32 members have now executed new contract agreements, and several more have plans at their upcoming city council meetings (slide 9: President and CEO Report)
  • IMUA has submitted a pre-application to receive federal grant funding for the Emergency Equipment Share project. IMEA may be needed to approve cost share (slide 17: Legislative and Regulatory Report)
  • Summer Readiness PJM Comments: Concerned that new generation is not coming online fast enough to replace retiring resources (slide 19: Operations)
  • MISO OMS Survey, released on June 20, projects growing capacity deficits (slides 24 – 25: Operations)
  • Wind performance is decreasing (slides 26 – 27: Operations)
    [Note: It may be first time I have seen IMEA publicly reveal MWh for Green River and Lee Dekalb]
  • Trimble County stacks replacement project is currently in the front-end engineering phase. Detail scope and construction timeline will not be known until the fall. Construction to begin in spring 2025 (slide 33: Trimble County)
  • Prairie State tube leaks in both units 1 and 2 (slide 34: Prairie State)
  • IMEA received official notice from Winnetka regarding its plans to replace Unit 4. Winnetka has also requested a waiver of IMEA’s 1-year replacement policy (slide 35: Local Transmission & Generation)
  • Staff is making progress on the PPA with SolAmerica for Highland, Carmi and Metropolis, but major sticking points remain (slide 47: Solar Project Update)
  • Marshall and Princeton projects with Altofer are expected to be completed by end of year, while Oglesby is expected to be Spring 2025 (slide 48: Solar Project Update)
  • ComEd Formula Transmission Rate update was filed on April 24. The first year impact on IMEA is expected to be a temporary one-year decrease due to the 2022 roll up credit. IMEA’s PJM peak also decreased to 504 MW. (slides 61 – 63: Legal Report)
  • Resolution #24-02-896 was amended to correctly reflect the April 30, 2025 end date for the contract renewal period (slide 80: Resolution #24-02-896 to Correct Scrivener’s Error)

—

And finally, here’s my encouragement to you to attend IMEA board meetings. Webinar means not having to devote a whole day commuting to and from Springfield.

  • The next scheduled full IMEA Board Meeting is Aug 29, 2024 at 10:00AM, preceded by an Exec Board Meeting on Aug 28, 2024 at 2:00PM.
  • The webinar registration info is posted within the IMEA meeting agenda document file, typically posted at the end of the preceding week.
    https://www.imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting Feb 20, 2025 “Highlights”
IMEA Exec Board Meeting Jan 22, 2025 “Highlights”

IMEA Board Meeting Apr 25, 2024 Highlights

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

Hello Energy,

Sharing my “highlights” from Thursday’s Apr 25 IMEA Board Meeting:

  1. Acceptance and approval of the first 10 Member contract renewals
  2. Exploring an ownership share in a transmission project with Ameren’s ATXI
  3. Utility scale solar project status
  4. Some additional noteworthy items

The link to the meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10sxkaClNxAVF6pI2PDXjY4rMwrb6qHdD/view

There are no recordings offered by IMEA of IMEA board meetings, unlike our Naperville city council and many other public bodies.  The meeting minutes will become available after approved at the next IMEA board meeting scheduled for June 27.  

Slides, agendas, minutes, etc.  from this meeting and previous board meeting are posted in the CLEAN google drive.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jWacdmtQ4yPRzkbUAjKWz4RVuwDzUEDM

Thursday’s meeting slides and agenda files begin with the file prefix 2024-04-25_

The above link to the CLEAN IMEA Board Meetings google drive is also posted in the CLEAN Sources and Resource page:
https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources

1. Acceptance and approval of the first 10 Member contract renewals (slides 41 – 51)

  • The IMEA board adopted resolutions #24-04-0900 through #24-04-909 to formally accept the first 10 Members who approved their new Power Sales Contracts via local ordinances
  • These new contracts cover the contract period Oct 1, 2035 through May 31, 2055
  • The 10 Members are: Princeton, Casey, Marshall, Altamont, Bushnell, Flora, Greenup, Roodhouse, Rantoul, and Oglesby
  • 2 others Breeze and Rock Falls were received after the meeting agenda was published, so they will be formally accepted and approved at the June board meeting. 
  • IMEA reports that several more Members have plans to approve contract in their May-June city council meetings.

2. Exploring an ownership share in a transmission project with Ameren’s ATXI (slides 30 – 33)

  • IMEA described a potential transmission ownership opportunity with Ameren’s ATXI division for which the board voiced their agreement for IMEA to further review and research to explore the opportunity
  • The project is a Princeton/Peru 138KV connection
  • Ameren will be the primary developer, contract and operator, and IMEA would be a minority owner
  • Preliminary projections of $20-$30 million might be funded from IMEA liquidity or an IMEA bond issue
  • IMEA’s capital investment in the project would be recovered through the MISO transmission funding process
  • IMEA staff will evaluate and report back to the board

3. Utility scale solar project status (slide 36)

  • The Sustainability Plan seeks 100MW solar by end of 2026
  • The IMEA CEO reports that utility scale solar prices are 75% higher than 5 years ago (in 2019 when IMEA finalized solar contract with Ranger Power’s Big River project)
  • Staff discussions and due diligence currently continues with one vendor
  • If discussions with the vendor continue to be fruitful, IMEA anticipates a term sheet by June followed by formal contract approval in August

4. Some additional noteworthy items

  • President and CEO report (slides 10-18)

IMEA expects to be able to refinance $400M of the outstanding 2015A bonds with a potentials savings of $30 million. The refi but will not extend the length beyond current 2035, Authorization will be sought in late 2024 or early 2035 (slide 13)

  • Operations: PJM (slide 20)

Base Residual Auction (BRA) results for 2024/2025 stand after appeal to US Court of Appeals, so no change to IMEA’s PJM capacity costs for planning year 2024/2025

  • Trimble County report (slide 27)

Detail scope and timeline expected late summer 2024 for the project to build new powerplant stacks for both units 1 and 2

  • Prairie State report (slide 28)

No change in Prairie State CCS status: “No updates since last reported” and “No commitment from PSGC or the owners”

  • Behind the Meter solar projects (slides 34-35)
  • Legal report (slides 37-40)

Latest numbers on Winter Storm Elliott’s impact: Penalty [for Trimble County] $2.264 Million, Performance Payment $4.578 Million, Net $2.214 Million

  • Meeting schedule for FY24-25 (slide 57)
  • Committee assignments for FY24-25 (slide 58)

—

And as usual at the end my board meeting emails, here’s my encouragement again to you to also attend IMEA board meetings. Webinar means not having to devote a whole day commuting to and from Springfield.

The webinar registration info is posted within the IMEA meeting agenda documents, typically posted at the end of the preceding week.

https://www.imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

Next scheduled full IMEA Board Meeting is June 27, 2024 at 10:00AM, preceded by an Exec Board Meeting at 2:00PM June 26, 2024.

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting Feb 20, 2025 “Highlights”
IMEA Exec Board Meeting Jan 22, 2025 “Highlights”

IMEA Board Meeting Feb 15, 2024 Highlights

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

Hello Energy,

Sharing my selection of “highlights” from Thursday’s Feb 15 IMEA Board Meeting:

  1. Approval of the forms of the new contracts
  2. IMEA’s verbal presentation on the muni-coop transparency legislation
  3. IMEA goals for fiscal year 2025
  4. Presentation and approval of both the revised FY 2024 budget and the new FY 2025 budget
  5. Nominations and approval of the Executive Board for FY 2025

Followed by:

  • Text of comments on the new contract by our Naperville Electric Director at the previous day’s IMEA Executive Board Meeting (He was unable to attend the Thur board meeting due to his required attendance at a union arbitration hearing that could not be rescheduled), and
  • an appendix with my notes on additional board meeting slides

The link to the meeting’s presentation slides pdf is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jJCaW2N39vjC-_jQ0nebKSlefEwowKRe/view

Slides, agendas, minutes, etc.  from this meeting and previous board meeting are posted in the CLEAN google drive.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jWacdmtQ4yPRzkbUAjKWz4RVuwDzUEDM

Thursday’s meeting slides and agenda files begin with the file prefix 2024-02-15_

The above link to the CLEAN IMEA Board Meetings google drive is also posted in the CLEAN Sources and Resource page:

https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources/

IMEA provides us no recordings of the meetings, unlike our Naperville city council and many other public bodies.  The minutes will become available once approved at the next IMEA board meeting scheduled for April 27.  If there’s interest, I would be willing to host a Q&A zoom to review and discuss this Feb 15 meeting.

1. Approval of the forms of the new contracts  (slides 41 – 44)

  • Forms of the new contracts were unanimously approved by the 22 Member representatives in attendance.
  • A package will be sent out by end of month to all the Members with a cover letter, new contract forms, and draft language for Members to consider using in their municipal resolutions/ordinances approving the contracts. [We learned at December’s board meeting that the time period to consider renewal is up to 14 months, Mar 1, 2024 to Apr 30, 2025]
  • As I described earlier, our Naperville Electric gave comments at the previous day’s Executive Board meeting. Thetext of his comments are below, following item 5 in this  email.
  • Slide 41 lists several changes to the new power sales contract form, since the December board meeting.

One change is a clarification that IMEA-sponsored projects in Member municipalities do not count against the Member Directed Resources (MDR) limit. Such IMEA-sponsored projects include the IMEA 1 MW solar project in Naperville at Springbrook and possible future IMEA-sponsored battery storage projects within a Member’s municipality

  • Slide 42 lists several changes to the Capacity Purchase Agreement. These agreements apply only to those Members who dedicate their local generation resources to IMEA. Winnetka’s natural gas generation is an example.

The 2015 IMEA bond prospectus contains this description on pdf file page 37, footer page number 25:

IMEA’s Participating Members with existing fossil fuel-fired generating units have dedicated such facilities to IMEA under Capacity Purchase Agreements (“Dedicated Capacity”). Approximately 295 MW net tested capability of Dedicated Capacity is available to IMEA upon request to meet its load requirements. Due to the age and relatively higher costs of fuel utilized, these facilities are generally best suited for use as peaking and reserve capacity. Table 5 below summarizes the existing dedicated generating resources of the Participating Members.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m48LekH86aZ6DR9NiwEajOl5pIqjt__z

2. IMEA’s verbal presentation on the muni-coop transparency legislation (slide 16, from the legislative & regulatory report section of the meeting)

  • Slide 16 lists “Transparency Legislation” as a bullet point. Further details were provided verbally by the IMEA Legislative Director. 

Sharing items from my notes on what was said by the Legislative Director  [and offering my comments after]:

HB5021 and corresponding language in SB3637 has a dramatic impact on munis, agencies, and coops

  • “chock-full” of new requirements
  • imposes an Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) requirement
  • imposes a renewable portfolio standard (RPS)
  • puts in state oversight and cedes local control for the first time in history
  • your power supply and policies have always been city council regulated
  • IMEA already has a higher renewable percentage than the state
  • IMEA already has a sustainability plan commitment
  • we don’t think resource decisions should be made by the state
  • whole host of transparency requirements
  • already on IMEA website or in IMEA board meetings
  • budgets, resources, capital expenditures, others
  • prime example is budget in today’s meeting
  • munis are the most transparent in the state
  • with OMA, FOIA, and our board meetings, don’t think that can be disputed
  • net metering was already negotiated in CEJA
  • some eminent domain provisions may cause muni problems with the way they are written

[

COMMENTS:

First, please I encourage you to become well-versed on the transparency issues. Meeting the letter of the law with respect to the Open Meetings Act (OMA) and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are ground level requirements, but alone are not sufficient to provide transparency in many key areas. Descriptions, explanations, and examples are provided in our CLEAN “Lack of Transparency” webpage and detailed document:

https://cleanenergynaperville.org/did-you-know/lack-of-transparency/

Second, from my perspective regarding transparency on matters in our local Naperville electric utility, Naperville does a pretty good job on that transparency. I also appreciate our Electric Director’s time, efforts and genuine interest in dialogue and providing transparency. But when we cross over into power supply and IMEA matters, transparency apparently depends on what IMEA will provide.

Let’s take a look at that “prime example” noted above from the words of IMEA: the IMEA budget. 

  • IMEA budget presentations and the votes to approve the budget occur in the very same IMEA board meeting, even though this is a $350 million annual budget with a corresponding balance sheet of $1.2 billion in assets. Compare that with the City of Naperville budget process, which is publicly posted and reviewed by city council in workshop meetings over a period of months. Not suggesting that there shouldn’t be meaningful differences between the two, but that same day IMEA presentation and vote is quite striking.
  • In advance of the board meeting, the IMEA board members receive a copy of the proposed budget and budget resolution documents. Apparently no one else sees a copy.  Those budget resolution documents, as well as all other IMEA resolution documents, are not posted online and not available to the public in advance of the board meetings.
  • The citizens and ratepayers who are financially responsible for paying those IMEA monthly bills have no advance opportunity to review, question, and offer stakeholder input.  Compare that with Naperville budget workshops and city council meetings where resolutions, ordinances, and supporting materials for agenda items are posted online in advance of the meetings. They are available for public review, questions, comments, and even time to contact council members and city staff.
  • Contrary to the IMEA claim, this “prime example” would appear to suggest that this budget of IMEA is quite a bit low on the scale that measures transparency.

]

3. IMEA goals for fiscal year 2025 (Slide 14, part of President and CEO’s report)

  • Note that IMEA FY2025, also referred to as FY24/25, runs from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025
  • Here are the goals copy/pasted from  slide 14. [Note the contract renewal goal of at least 20 members.]
  • Complete FY 24/25 below approved budget
  • Maintain Debt Service Coverage of 1.20 at fiscal year end
  • Visit each Member at least once in fiscal year
  • City Council meetings/workshops to provide IMEA/IMUA background
  • Maintain all current financial ratings agency status
  • Complete Ameren WCA/UCA agreements and host Member workshops for those affected by the outcomes
  • Execute at least 20 new IMEA Power Sales Contract and have them approved by IMEA Board by April  30, 2025
  • Complete installation of 3 current BTM solar projects by April 30, 2025
  • Negotiate contract(s) for 100MW of utility grade solar and have IMEA Board approve by April 2025  Board meeting
  • Extend IMEA Demand Response Program for FY 24/25 and sign up at least 4 retail customers
  • Evaluate Ameren WDS rate change proposal and determine IMEA’s efforts to mitigate increases
  • Evaluate and provide recommendations to Board for next 3-year Energy Efficiency & EV Programs
  • Complete study of installing utility scale, BTM battery storage unit within a member system to be completed by December 31, 2025
  • Determine options and most cost-effective method(s) for a Conservation Voltage Reduction Program by December 31, 2025

4. Presentation and approval of both the FY 2025 budget and the revised FY 2024 budget (Slides 45 -59)

  • Copies of the two budget resolutions have been requested from IMEA. I expect to receive them next week after they are formally signed.

When received, the resolutions will be uploaded into the publicly shared CLEAN  IMEA Board Resolutions directory:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Z3rPQTGKKmqN9IzjFaFormy0UUQuhJPd

  • Slide 45 provides a graph of IMEA Rates 2015 to 2024 titled “IMEA Actual Rates Consistently Under Budget”
  • Resolution/ordinance 24-02-897 and slides 46-52 contain the revised budget for the current fiscal year 2024 which ends Apr 30, 2024

My notes:

Operating expenses lower than original estimates

Purchased power costs are lower

  • IMEA is selling power in PJM [Prairie State and Trimble County are located in MISO and both are pseudo-tied to PJM]

Prairie State and Trimble County fuel costs increased

Trimble County O&M increased while Prairie State decreased

Transmission costs are lower than original estimates

  • Ameren charges lower due to lower peaks [network service charges are based on peak]

IMEA’s A&G expenses are lower

  • Compared to peers, lowest of any Joint Action Agency

No board member questions or discussion prior to approval

  • Resolution/ordinance 24-02-897 and slides 52-59 contain the budget for fiscal year 2025 that begins May 1, 2024

My notes:

Planned Prairie State Outages

  • PS1-10 day fall outage
  • PS2-28 day fall outage

Planned Trimble County Outages

  • TC1-9-day fall outage and 16-day spring outage
  • TC2-65-day fall outage (turbine) and 16-day spring outage

Capital budget higher than FY24 Revised Budget

– TC capital requirements for stack projects engineering and prep [Earlier TC report during the meeting reported stacks for both units]

Purchase power costs to increase

  • Due to lower generation from planned outages + less favorable market than FY2024 [less market sales to offset purchases]

Lowr fuel costs due to planned outages at Prairie State and Trimble

Transmission costs increase [Ameren and ComEd network service charges]

Budgeting for three new staff members: PSC Supervisor, Project Manager (if needed) and Government Relations staff person

No board member questions or discussion prior to approval [My memory of the day before Exec Board meeting tells me that there was one question about the Project Manager position. It’s budgeted, but will not be filled without coming back to the board for approval]

5. Nominations and approval of the Executive Board for FY 2025 (Slide 62)

  • Our Naperville Electric Director, Brian Groth, was nominated and approved by the Members to serve as Vice-Chair of the full IMEA Board for FY2025 which starts on May 1, 2024.
  • Copy/paste from slide 62 of the nominations and approvals. All nominations were unanimously approved.
  • Cory Sheehy, Marshall as Chairman
  • Brian Groth, Naperville as Vice Chairman
  • Dan Cook as Secretary/Treasurer
  • Troy Fodor as Assistant Secretary/Treasurer
  • David Coston, Carmi
  • Pat McCarthy, Chatham
  • Sue McLaughlin, Farmer City
  • John Tolan, Freeburg
  • Pete Suhr, St. Charles
  • Mike Kirk, Sullivan

Text of Naperville Electric Director’s Comments at the Feb 14 IMEA Executive Board Meeting.  (The text was emailed to me along with permission to share.)

Let me first start by noting that I will not be at the full board meeting tomorrow as we have a union arbitration hearing in Naperville for which I need to be in attendance. This hearing was scheduled over six months ago and could not be rescheduled.  

From time-to-time local commitments cause conflicts and I wanted to be transparent on the reason for my absence tomorrow. Thank you for the understanding.

With respect to the resolution authorizing the president and CEO to seek contract extensions from current IMEA members, I believe the following comments are a fair and accurate summary of both the agency’s work on this topic as well as Naperville’s efforts to date. 

By voting for the approval of the standard form of the contract and authorizing the president and CEO to seek contract renewals this board is not binding any member’s community to a contract extension, this is simply starting the conversation of who will remain in the agency at 2035 so that the agency can begin planning how it will support those members beyond this date.

While the contract may be one document that governs the interaction between the municipalities and the agency, I would not like to lose sight of the sustainability plan, which is a living breathing document which was approved by the board and outlines the agency’s sustainability goals as well as the process by which agency staff will regularly update the board, and member municipalities, on these goals. We also should remember our work here as the Board of Directors. All of this comes together to provide affordable, sustainable and reliable power to all of our customers.

From a local perspective, Naperville continues to review the proposed contract documents with internal and external legal counsel as well researching all options available to the City through its work with consultants. To that point, we have and will continue to seek stakeholder input on contract terms and language, proposing additions and/or changes as warranted.

I appreciate all of the work agency staff have put into this contract proposal,  listening to members of the contract working group to incorporate key changes to the document, I was a part of this working group and experienced first hand the level of effort that went into this document.  Through my participation in the working group, I understand the agency and boards desire for a single contract form between all members and also understand that each community may seek to have a different energy mix today and in the future.  I am confident that at the end of the day our collective work will give all members the flexibility to utilize local control over their energy mix while ensuring that all members are protected from the cost shift that could occur with increased utilization of the Member Directed Resources concept. 

Our work on this contract extension continues with the common goal of providing reliable energy delivery to our communities now and in the future.

Appendix of My Further Meeting Notes

  • Behind the Meter (BTM) and Utility Scale Solar (Slides 26 – 29)

Looks like Altofer is likely to be selected for the contract to develop BTM projects in Marshall, Oglesby, and Princeton

SolAmerica works continues for USDA PACE loans for projects in Rantoul, Highland, Carmi, and Metropolis

IMEA reports that they are in steady contact with 4-5 utility scale solar projects

Projects continue to experience delays: mineral rights/land title, interconnection, supply chain

Developers want to push risks back on IMEA

IMEA is also in competition with large corporations such as Amazon with their own clean energy goals

Costs are nearly double what they were back in 2019

  • Operations – MISO (Slide 19)

Warnings on future capacity deficits in MISO

Gap of 9 GW in MISO planning year 28-29

  • Operations (Slide 20)

Three IMEA Members hit all time peaks in January

  • Trimble County (Slide 21)

Sounds like large expenditures are coming to rebuild stacks for both units TC1 and TC2

  • Prairie State (Slide 22)

No reported change in carbon capture project status

  • How Do PJM Capacity Market Changes Impact IMEA (Slides 33-34 of the legal report)

FERC approved filing ER24-99 for PJM to again change the way it determines capacity for the capacity markets

IMEA is “well hedged” with ownership of thermal resources (coal-fired units) for the expected impacts of reduced capacity credit and increasing capacity prices

  • Resolution 24-02-899 Revised Schedule A for Naperville (Slide 40)

The board approved changes to Naperville’s IMEA Schedule A

Resulting from the shutdown on Dec 31 of two co-generation units at the former Amoco site.

Schedule A identifies the measurement points of energy “delivered by IMEA”. 

[My understanding is that these are the IMEA/PJM metered locations where the high voltage PJM/ComEd transmission network meets the Naperville local distribution network.]

  • Financial Projections and IMEA Member Rates (Slides 60-61)

The main message is: our IMEA costs and your Member rates remain stable, except for increasing transmission costs from ComEd and Ameren

—–

As usual at the end my board meeting emails, here’s  my encouragement to you to also attend IMEA board meetings. Webinar means not having to devote a whole day commuting to and from Springfield. Ted, from Energy Committee, attended for the first time, and Maureen was again able to squeeze in part of the meeting with her work schedule.

The webinar registration info is posted within the meeting agendas, typically posted at the end of the preceding week.

https://www.imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

Next scheduled meeting is the IMEA Executive Board meeting on Mar 27, 2024 at 10:00AM

Next scheduled full IMEA Board Meeting is April 25, 2024 at 10:00AM, preceded by an Exec Board Meeting at 2:00PM the day before April 24, 2024.

Thank you.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting Feb 20, 2025 “Highlights”
IMEA Exec Board Meeting Jan 22, 2025 “Highlights”

IMEA Board Meeting Dec 7, 2023 Highlights

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

Note: This posting is a copy/paste of an email report to the NEST Energy Committee, where the formatting characteristics of the original email change when copy/pasting from Microsoft Outlook using the WordPress editor.

A copy of email attachment file 2023-12-07_IMEA_BOD_Slides_NewContract.pdf is available here. It has the 10 new contract slides extracted from the full set of board meeting slides.

Hello Energy,

Sharing my selection of “highlights” from today’s IMEA Board Meeting …

Slides, agendas, minutes, etc.  from this meeting and previous board meeting are posted in the CLEAN google drive.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jWacdmtQ4yPRzkbUAjKWz4RVuwDzUEDM

Today’s meeting slides and agenda files begin with the file prefix 2023-12-07_

The above link to the google drive is also posted in the CLEAN Sources and Resource page:

https://cleanenergynaperville.org/sources-and-resources/

Note also that there was a closed IMEA Special Board Meeting yesterday December 6 for which we have no information other than the agenda.

Sharing only 3 main items from today’s Dec 7 meeting and leaving the rest of the slides to you.  

  • starting first with the proposed new contract which I believe is of interest to most of us,
  • then the sustainability plan vote, and
  • end with Prairie State

Happy to answer questions about the meeting or any other questions during the open Naperville/IMEA & Power Supply Q&A this Tuesday Dec 12 6:45pm to 7:15pm. It will end 15 minutes before the start of the NEST Energy Committee meeting. Old guys like me need the break.

Proposed New Contract (slides 51 – 60 and which are also extracted from the full set of slides and attached as a pdf to this email)

[COMMENTS: I encourage you to closely review all 10 of these slides and they are attached.]

Slide 51 (page 1 in the attached extract)

  • Our Electric Director Brian Groth actively participated in the new contract working group

Slide 59 (page 9 in the attached extract)

  • Forms of documents will be approved at the February 2024 IMEA board meeting
  • Members will have a time frame of 14 months (March 1, 2024 – April 30, 2025) to approve

Side 54 (page 4 in the attached extract)

  • Contract Length – October 1, 2035 to May 31, 2055

Slide 55 – 58   (pages 5 – 8 in the attached extract)

  • Member Directed Resources (MDR)

If Members desire an added portion of self-controlled, locally developed sources as a portion of Member power supply needs

  • Provision in contract allows the Member to seek and gain approval for self-directed carbon-free resources
    • Wind, Solar, Biomass, Nuclear, Other carbon- free source that meets IL CEJA laws
    • Clean Energy production rules
  • For up to 10% of Member Peak Load
  • Member can place MDR within their distribution system or inside the current transmission system they are already served by ComEd or Ameren-Illinois
  • Member can begin the MDR process once the new contract is signed. Does not have to wait until 2035

Slide 60  (page 10 in the attached extract)

  • Why now …
  • Need to plan now
  • Needs are now for 100MW of [utility scale] solar
  • IMEA resource agreements nearing expiration
    • 70MW Lee Dekalb Wind (2030)
    • 50MW Green River Wind (2035)
    • 25MW Big Rivers Solar (2035)
    • 45% of Prairie State output (2035/2038)
  • Long-term deals are priced lower
  • Longer wait will impact costs/options
  • Impossible to plan without knowing how much power

[COMMENTS:

  • The new contract would lock us into further long-term commitment to those coal-fired generation resources at Prairie State and Trimble County
  • We need to understand from our Electric Director if/how MDR might work for us.
  • MDR does not appear to allow a contract with another power supply vendor for that 10%; only allows us to deploy our own resources and for which we would be able to take advantage of financial incentives such as direct pay of tax credits

]

Resolution and Vote to Approve IMEA Sustainability Plan (slides 38 – 50)

  • Resolution to approve was unanimous
  • I received confirmation on the vote results from our Electric Director, as there was a webinar malfunction during the voting such that remote attendees could not see or hear the vote results
  • Prior to the vote, our Electric Director:
  • Thanked the Agency and working group for setting a vision and policy to formally begin the transition to net zero by 2050
  • Said there’s lots of work still to be done; It’s a living , breathing document; and Naperville will continue to bring ideas

[COMMENTS:

  • We expressed our comments at city council on Tuesday evening Dec 5.
  • If you did not watch the city council public comments and then council discussion at the very end of the meeting, I encourage you to do so.
  • Full council recording is here:

https://naperville.granicus.com/player/clip/1603

Video clips are available on YouTube:

Public comments

https://youtu.be/Uuqjj7FdLtY

Council discussion

https://youtu.be/XmO4w1_P3nk

]

Prairie State Report (slides 26 and 27)

Slide 26

  • Documents that long-term operational and decommission planning has begun
  • Actual decommissioning process would being in 2046

Slide 27

  • Prairie State Carbon Capture status appears to be unchanged, sine last meeting
  • On-going discussions with a consortium of companies that have interest in building a carbon capture system
  • Consortium involves companies with a focus on 1) project development, construction, and operations, 2) project financing, 3) CO2 transportation, and 4) underground storage of CO2
  • Working towards development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the basic framework of a potential definitive transaction → Continue to seek satisfactory terms for PSGC owners
  • Still no PSGC commitment to proceed
  • The University of Illinois (U of I) submitted an application for a $350M grant from the DOE in May
  • No update from DOE on the grant

Always have to end my board meeting emails with my encouragement to you to attend IMEA board meetings. You no longer have to devote a day trip to Springfield to attend. Webinar registration info is posted within the meeting agendas posted at:

https://www.imea.org/IMEA%20Board%20Meeting%20Schedule.asp

Next scheduled meeting is the IMEA Executive Board meeting on Jan 17, 2024 at 10:00AM

Next scheduled full IMEA Board Meeting is Feb 15, 2024 at 10:00AM.

Thanks.

Greg

IMEA Board Meeting Feb 20, 2025 “Highlights”
IMEA Exec Board Meeting Jan 22, 2025 “Highlights”

City Council and Mayoral Candidate Election Resources

Posted on Modified on by Greg Hubert

The April 4 city council and mayoral elections will play a significant role in our Naperville clean energy future.

Here are some candidate forum recordings and other resources to help you in your voting choices for the next Mayor of Naperville and the 4 of 8 seats on city council.

Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force (NEST)

Candidate Forums and Questionnaires Webpage

City Council Candidate Forum – March 8, 2023

City Council and Mayoral Candidate Environmental Questionnaire Responses

League of Women Voters of Naperville

Voter Resources

Naperville City Council Candidate Forum – February 20, 2023

Naperville Mayor Candidate Forum – February 23, 2023

Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation (NAHC) and Senior Task Force

City Council Candidate Forum – January 31, 2023

Naperville Community Television (NCTV17)

Naperville Election 2023 Candidates

Posted in Uncategorized