Category: CWLP

The State Journal Register
Tim Landis

City Water, Light & Power at some point will have to retire older coal power plants as maintenance costs rise and markets shift to other forms of energy.

Agreement ended there on Tuesday after the Sierra Club released a study claiming loses at Dallman power station totaling $251.3 million from 2008 to 2016. Residential customers paid an extra $215 for CWLP power in 2016 and commercial customers an added $2,307, according to the report, compared with costs on wholesale power markets.

“Every year since 2008, CWLP would have been better off not to operate Dallman, but would have been better off buying power from the wholesale market,” report author Thomas Vitolo of Synapse Energy & Economics said in a phone press conference on the report.

Vitolo said the figures were based on public financial reports and customer costs estimates were based on the price of CWLP power compared with the cost of purchasing electricity in competitive, wholesale markets.

The cost of maintaining the power plant, including compliance with tougher federal clean-air standards, can no longer be justified, according to the Sierra Club, which released a similar report in 2015. The oldest of four units, Dallman 1, was constructed in 1968 and the newest, Dallman 4, went online in 2009, according to a CWLP history of the station.

Vitolo estimated the cost of shutting down the station at $10 million to $20 million, adding that he was not suggesting the city get out of the power generation business.

State Journal-Register
Jason Nevel

A deal to provide tax incentives for a Houston-based company to build a $1 billion natural gas power plant near Pawnee got the green light Tuesday from the Springfield City Council.

Tuesday’s vote brought out the largest crowd a security guard said he’s ever witnessed for a council meeting.

Around 300 union members, many from Laborers Local 477, who wore their orange shirts and held signs reading, “Let’s Build This Community” and “Opportunity,” filled the council chamber and hallway.

Tuesday’s vote, which passed 9-1, was for the council to extend the boundaries of the Springfield/Sangamon County Enterprise Zone.

Representatives of EmberClear Corp. say the incentives are essential to constructing the 1,110-megawatt-capacity plant near Pawnee. The Sangamon County Board OK’d the property zoning and sales tax breaks in May.

State Journal-Register
John Reynolds

A deal to provide tax incentives for a Houston-based company to build a $1 billion natural gas power plant near Pawnee took another step forward Tuesday.

Springfield City Council members decided that a proposal to extend the boundaries of the Springfield/Sangamon County Enterprise Zone to accommodate the plant will appear on the agenda at Tuesday’s city council meeting. The decision came after council members heard from supporters who said the plant would generate jobs and detractors who said the plant would adversely affect the quality of life in Pawnee.

“We currently enjoy the peace and quiet the south part of Pawnee provides,” said Pawnee resident Michelle Young. “Our backyard often has deer and turkey roaming the creek. Pawnee has been a great place to raise a family, but many residents are feeling threatened that this could all completely change with the addition of a power plant. Please consider how you would feel if this were proposed so close to your home.”

Brad Schaive, business manager for Laborers Local 477, told aldermen that the plant offers unprecedented opportunities.

“I don’t see a lot of hiring at the state. I don’t see a lot of hiring in the medical industry currently. I see a lot of boarded-up businesses,” he said.

The city council is one of several governmental entities that must sign off on tax incentives for the EmberClear Corp. project. Representatives of the company say the incentives are essential to constructing the 1,110-megawatt-capacity plant. The Sangamon County Board OK’d the property zoning and sales tax breaks in May.

A study commissioned by the city of Springfield and completed by The Energy Authority Inc. indicated that the EmberClear plant could result in nearly $20 million in lost profit to CWLP over the next 20 years.

Earlier this summer Mayor Jim Langfelder’s administration started working on a deal with EmberClear that the mayor said would lessen any negative impact on the city.