By Benjamine Yount - (Illinois Statehouse News) - 12/21/10 - The four communities in Illinois hoping for the revamped FutureGen project now know who their competition is.
The FutureGen Alliance on Dec. 20 named Douglas, Morgan, Christian and Fayette counties as the final four communities for the underground sequestration site for the $1.2 billion project.
FutureGen has been looking for a new site since the federal government pulled the plug on the original design that was supposed to be built in Mattoon. FutureGen has already announced it will build the project's state of the art clean-coal power plant near Meridosia in Morgan County. FutureGen plans to spend $700 million to retro-fit an existing Ameren power plant.
Those plans, along with Monday's announcement, have economic developers in Morgan County smiling.
Terri Denison with the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation said he's allowing himself some hope that Morgan County will get lucky.
"If we're chosen as [the underground storage site] then all $1.2 billion would be here in Morgan County," Denison said. "Where as if one of the other communities was to be the fortunate winner, then that $1.2 billion would be split-up between a number of communities. We're kinda going for the home run in the bottom of the ninth."
But other communities say they've done their work and are also hoping for a payoff. Tuscola's Brian Moody has been through a selection process with FutureGen once before, and is happy to be back on the short list.
"[This] is really what we expected. Given our previous experiences with the first FutureGen project and all of the various technical requirements that are necessary for an adequate sequestration site — we assumed that we would have a suitable site," said Moody.
But for Moody, and many others involved in FutureGen in Illinois, the debacle that followed the initial selection of Mattoon is still fresh in their minds.
"We try not to get our hopes up. We try to be very realistic about any kind of major industrial site selection process…We're trying to have some guarded optimism," said Moody.
Denison in Jacksonville is "cautiously optimistic."
"It not only involves the federal government, but the state of Illinois also has to play a part in this to make it happen. Ameren has to see that it makes financial sense for the corporation and the share holders. … So there are a lot of hurdles to go before it's a done deal," added Denison.
If the deal gets done, FutureGen will be worth a lot to the four communities still in the hunt. Denison is quick to point out that along with the $1.2 billion in investments, there will be close to 1,000 construction jobs and dozens of full- time jobs to come. But it's not just the number of jobs that's attractive. FutureGen will bring high-paying, white collar jobs to Morgan County, Denison said.
In addition to Morgan County and Tuscola, Vandalia and a site in Christian County remain in the hunt for FutureGen, Monday's decision leaves the city of Quincy and Pike County out of the running.
The FutureGen Alliance hopes to chose a final site for the carbon sequestration facility by the end of January Construction, however, is not expected to begin until late 2012. FutureGen is not expecting power to be produced until some time in 2016.
Story courtesy of Illinois Statehouse News.
MARK TWAIN: FATHER OF AMERICAN LITERATURE -- FACT FACTS
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Showing posts with label Ameren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ameren. Show all posts
Ameren Seeks Expansion Through New Company
(Illinois Statehouse News) - 8/3/2010 - By Kevin Lee - A prominent midwest utilities corporation wants the green light on a slate of new large-scale electricity projects within a year.
Ameren Corporation, which disburses both natural gas and electricity utilities in Illinois and Missouri, is creating a new subsidiary to manage the projects, which include running high-voltage transmission lines across the state and linking together existing power plants.
The petition asks the federal regulatory commission to determine how midwest utilities consumers would divide the costs of the construction projects. The corporation expects a response in 60 days.
Tom Voss, President and CEO of Ameren, said expanding transmission efforts would help spur development and keep prices competitive for utilities consumers.
“New transmission would also open up new markets for our procurement of electricity for Illinois customers. So we think that it’ll make the markets more competitive so it should eventually help with keeping costs under control,” he said.
State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, was cautiously optimistic on the idea of constructing high-voltage lines to buttress the state’s energy grid.
“From what we hear from industry, chambers of commerce, the (Illinois) Manufacturers’ Association, is that there is a deficit of power. We haven’t really built any new generation, and so the ability to strengthen the grid has been a goal of theirs,” he said.
One of the projects in the portfolio includes running transmission lines through the Grand Tower Power Plant in southern Illinois.
Maureen Borkowski, the new president and CEO of the Ameren subsidiary that will oversee the transmission projects, said the project will provide energy support to the region.
“One of the transmissions projects is a big ‘X’ with Grand Tower at the middle of that ‘X,’” Borkowski said. “The purpose for that project, primarily, is due to congestion relief as well as (improving) local area reliability.”
Borkowski also mentioned a large-scale proposal that would run transmission lines from Missouri to Indiana, through Quincy, Ill., and could potentially link energy sources throughout the state.
“That transmission project has a multitude of different benefits including reliability, wind integration, congestion relief. And that also happens to be on the path of the two clean-coal technology plants, the Taylorville Energy Center and FutureGen (near Mattoon, Illinois) that are being proposed in that region,” she said.
Neither clean-coal plant is running as of yet.
Borkowski said that if the federal government accepts the portfolio of projects, then Ameren would have to seek further approval on the portfolio from the Midwestern Transmission Independent Service Operators, a regional nonprofit energy organization, and the state of Illinois.
Story courtesy of Illinois Statehouse News.
Ameren Corporation, which disburses both natural gas and electricity utilities in Illinois and Missouri, is creating a new subsidiary to manage the projects, which include running high-voltage transmission lines across the state and linking together existing power plants.
The petition asks the federal regulatory commission to determine how midwest utilities consumers would divide the costs of the construction projects. The corporation expects a response in 60 days.
Tom Voss, President and CEO of Ameren, said expanding transmission efforts would help spur development and keep prices competitive for utilities consumers.
“New transmission would also open up new markets for our procurement of electricity for Illinois customers. So we think that it’ll make the markets more competitive so it should eventually help with keeping costs under control,” he said.
State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, was cautiously optimistic on the idea of constructing high-voltage lines to buttress the state’s energy grid.
“From what we hear from industry, chambers of commerce, the (Illinois) Manufacturers’ Association, is that there is a deficit of power. We haven’t really built any new generation, and so the ability to strengthen the grid has been a goal of theirs,” he said.
One of the projects in the portfolio includes running transmission lines through the Grand Tower Power Plant in southern Illinois.
Maureen Borkowski, the new president and CEO of the Ameren subsidiary that will oversee the transmission projects, said the project will provide energy support to the region.
“One of the transmissions projects is a big ‘X’ with Grand Tower at the middle of that ‘X,’” Borkowski said. “The purpose for that project, primarily, is due to congestion relief as well as (improving) local area reliability.”
Borkowski also mentioned a large-scale proposal that would run transmission lines from Missouri to Indiana, through Quincy, Ill., and could potentially link energy sources throughout the state.
“That transmission project has a multitude of different benefits including reliability, wind integration, congestion relief. And that also happens to be on the path of the two clean-coal technology plants, the Taylorville Energy Center and FutureGen (near Mattoon, Illinois) that are being proposed in that region,” she said.
Neither clean-coal plant is running as of yet.
Borkowski said that if the federal government accepts the portfolio of projects, then Ameren would have to seek further approval on the portfolio from the Midwestern Transmission Independent Service Operators, a regional nonprofit energy organization, and the state of Illinois.
Story courtesy of Illinois Statehouse News.
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Ameren,
electricity,
power,
utilities
