Batavia plans special resident meeting about electricity costs

The Batavia City Council is planning a special meeting Sept. 28 with utility customers to talk about their complaints about the cost of electricity produced by a coal plant in which the city invested.

This is in the wake of a federal judge's dismissal last month of a proposed class-action lawsuit brought by Batavia customers. The suit claimed people and firms that supplied information to Batavia officials about the Prairie State Energy Campus defrauded the city by misleading the city about the costs to build and run the plant; the reliability of the plant; and the quality of the coal in the mine that feeds it. The suit also sought to pry confidential information out of Batavia, electrical cooperatives, the plant and other entities, including Geneva, about the Prairie State deal.

The federal judge ruled customers weren't eligible to sue, as they were not the ones who made the decision to invest in the plant and buy power from it.

Now some Batavia residents are urging the city to join the suit, as the judge has allowed the plaintiffs time to amend it. Tuesday, City Administrator Bill McGrath told aldermen that city officials have met in the last week with the attorneys who brought the class action suit.

The Sept. 28 meeting is at 7:30 p.m. at the Batavia Government Center, 100 N. Island Ave.

The city is also taking questions at power@cityofbatavia.net, and will post the questions and answers on a dedicated page at cityofbatavia.net.

But city officials warn that they may not provide answers to some questions.

Much information about Batavia's involvement with Prairie State, via its membership in the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency with Geneva and Rochelle, is subject to a confidentiality agreement. That agreement says that those city representatives who want to receive detailed information about Prairie State's operations have to promise not to reveal that information to the public without the permission of NIMPA or Prairie State.

That confidential information includes analyses, forecasts and studies; design drawings; scientific, engineering, technical, commercial, financial, legal, organizational, administrative or economic data; operations and maintenance history; and information on research, business, operational, environmental and public relations strategy.

NIMPA owns 7.5 percent of Prairie State.

Energy prices

Public Works Director Gary Holm updated the council Tuesday on the state of the domestic energy market, with information from a presentation made by the Illinois Municipal Electric Association.

Essentially, it is not good news for Batavia, which is looking to sell excess electricity. Natural gas continues to sell at record-low prices, Holm said, and the export market for liquefied natural gas has decreased as countries in Europe and elsewhere have stepped up exploration for gas. Earlier this week, an Italian company announced finding what could be the world's biggest gas field off the coast of Egypt.

Thus, electricity generated by gas-fired plants remains cheaper than that of coal-fired plants, he said. But the price could be affected if the nations's infrastructure to deliver gas isn't increased.

"Which isn't going to help us at all if they improve their infrastructure," Alderman Michael O'Brien said.