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.

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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

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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

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.

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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)

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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