The Northern Illinois Muncipal Power Agency (NIMPA), made up of Batavia, Geneva and Rochelle, will look to Prairie in a bid to secure more fuel cost certainty.
By buying into the project, a NIMPA official told Platts Commodity News, the group would control a portion of the deep coal reserves Peabody intends to use to supply Prairie State.
The US$2 billion-plus plant will be fueled by six million tons of coal produced each year from an adjacent mine. It will use advanced emission control technologies enabling it to operate cleaner than the existing averages for U.S. coal-fueled plants, Illinois coal plants and proposed future emission limits.
A decision is expected from NIMPA on February 7.
