Note: This posting is a copy/paste from the email to NEST Energy Committee sharing the IMEA Board Meeting. (Formatting characteristics of the email changed 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
Council discussion
]
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