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