In the state of Illinois, coal-fired power plants are being phased out due to a provision in the landmark Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that requires those facilities be closed by 2045.
This means that the days of coal-fired power plants being a primary source of electricity are numbered.
One of those power plants is the Prairie State Energy Campus in Marissa, 45 miles southeast of St. Louis. It is of nine coal-fired power plants still in operation in Illinois.
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Prairie State is a 1,600-megawatt power plant attached to an underground coal mine, built to meet stringent environmental standards and be highly efficient, according to Prairie State spokesperson Alyssa Harre.
"As the only supercritical coal plant in Illinois, Prairie State is more efficient than every other coal plant in the state, effectively producing more electricity per ton of coal — meaning that Prairie State gets better 'gas mileage' than any other coal plant in the state," Harre said.
Prairie State serves 2.5 million people across Illinois and several other Midwestern states.
Harre said due to the facility's design and on-site storage of fuel, the company could keep the power grid resilient and also provide a backstop in case generation becomes more intermittent. She also said that a facility like Prairie State could become all the more important if Illinois sees an energy shortfall, something that a study last year by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Power Agency and the Illinois Commerce Commission said could happen within a few years.
"This support is more important than ever following a recent adequacy study by the state of Illinois found that Illinois may see an energy shortfall as soon as 2029 as renewable resources struggle to keep up with a surge in demand," Harre said.
Prairie State employs 650 workers, along with over 1,000 union members providing maintenance work, Harre said. In total, the facility adds around $785 million dollars to the state's economy, with local taxing bodies benefitting from $70 million of additional funding since the facility's opening in 2012, she said.
The union workforce, made up of boilermakers, pipefitters, mill wrights, iron workers, electricians, laborers, operators and carpenters, represented a $62 million investment last year for unions across the region, Harre said.
The plant plans to comply with CEJA's requirements for closing their facility within 20 years, but no official timetable for closure was provided.
"All long-term compliance plans will reflect our mission while maintaining operational flexibility to meet the needs of our member communities as energy and capacity markets continue to change," Harre said.
In the meantime, Prairie State hopes to continue providing not just a high level of performance to sustain the region's power grid, but also provide a level of sustainability.
Harre said that the facility's sustainability program grows with each year, focusing on "beneficial reuse," recycling across the facility and offsetting carbon dioxide deposits. For instance, the facility utilizes the coal combustion products created by their emission control processes in road construction, anti-skid applications on rainy days, as a replacement for Portland cement in concrete and even as an amendment to agricultural soils in the area.
Harre pointed out that the sustainability program creates not just a better environment, but it allows the facility's owners to save money as well.
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"As Illinois and the rest of the region enters a time of high energy demand and short supply, Prairie State remains an integral piece of our generation portfolio, providing rate stability and affordability while maintaining an unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability," Harre said.
One of those owners, the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, has committed to attaining a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Stacy Wilson, vice president of governmental affairs and member services for IMEA, said that they hope to diversify their portfolio of facilities beyond the kind of coal-fired ones exemplified by Prairie State.
"We recently added a 150-megawatt, large-scale solar project," Wilson said. "We have more than a dozen projects of solar and wind across Illinois. We're beginning to integrate battery storage into our portfolio, and we will continue to diversify our portfolio as we move into the future towards that net zero goal."
Joyce Blumenshine, conservation co-chair of the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club, said that the environmental impact of facilities like Prairie State was a key reason why her organization is pushing to ensure they close. For one, she noted that dangerous particulates can get lodged in people's lungs and cause serious health problems for those with underlying conditions.
"It can exacerbate asthma attacks, it has been implicated in causing heart attacks or other problems with COPD," Blumenshine said. "There's a long list of public health impacts from burning coal."
In addition, she said that the pollution caused by coal burning contributes to more unpredictable weather, particularly in summer months when heavy precipitation is becoming more common.
As the 2045 deadline to close the plants gets closer, Blumenshine says that the Sierra Club will strive for a transition to cleaner power that provides for job training, employment opportunities and assistance for people impact by plant closures.
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"There are wonderful success stories about getting this just transition funding for assisting people facing the end of employment at coal plants or other closing facilities to help find new jobs, bring new jobs and training to communities," Blumenshine said.
Blumenshine feels that communities and the public need to embrace change if cleaner sources of power are to be accepted in the future.
"CEJA has provisions for encouraging clean energy," Blumenshine said. "That depends, of course, on people understanding the importance of clean energy and being willing to perhaps change their view or change what they're used to. We have to embrace change and not everybody wants to do that. It's hard. We will have to change or we will face the consequences as humans on Earth."
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: What is the future for this large Illinois coal-fired power plant?