Naperville’s coal-heavy electricity supply hangs in the balance as contract renewal looms

With Naperville getting nearly 80% of its electricity from coal, a pivotal contract renewal with the city’s power supplier approaches.

The city’s energy portfolio is one of the “dirtiest” in the state, based on its level of reliance on coal. Community activists are looking to change that by urging the City Council to carefully consider a 10- to 15-year contract extension with its current supplier, the Illinois Municipal Energy Agency.

Naperville is locked into an agreement with the supplier until 2035. The council has until April 2025 to decide whether to renew, though environmental advocates say they fear it could sign at any time.

“We really need to organize now, because it could happen any time,” Cathy Clarkin, co-chair of the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force, said.

Unlike most of the state, Naperville doesn't get its power from an investor-owned utility like ComEd or Ameren. Instead, the city is part of the joint municipal power agency along with 31 other towns up and down the state, including St. Charles and Winnetka.

The Illinois Municipal Energy Agency supplies Naperville’s power, and Naperville Electric Utility manages the grid. While the arrangement allows for a lot of local control, advocates say the problem lies with the agency’s co-ownership of two major coal plants.

In 2021, the agency got 45% of its power from the Prairie State Energy Campus power plant, located downstate southeast of St. Louis. Meanwhile, coal-fired generators at the Trimble County Generating Station in Kentucky provided 23% of the power.

Owned by the Illinois Municipal Energy Agency and eight other membership organizations, Prairie State Energy Campus is the largest coal-fired generator in Illinois.

While other Illinois coal plants will close in 2030 under state law, Prairie State is exempted because it is a publicly owned plant. Rather, it must cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2038, and either close or reduce its emissions to zero by 2045.

Despite that 2045 deadline, the Naperville activists say they want to see greater transparency and more effective energy planning out of their supplier.

“We have the potential to maintain that local control with Naperville Electric Utility with IMEA — or with another provider,” Clarkin said. “Speaking for (the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force), we're somewhat agnostic on who that next electricity provider is. We want to see integrated resource planning, and we want to see a plan to transition to clean energy.”

Clarkin added that the coalition is open to renewing with its current supplier if sufficient changes to the contract are made.

“ (This contract) could be better. It could be better for ratepayers, it could be better for the climate, and it could be better for air pollution,” she said.

A lack of integrated resource planning is a major point of contention for the activists. The process involves assessing demand and supply resources to meet electricity needs at the lowest cost, all the while meeting reliability requirements, evaluating how energy markets and prices are going to evolve and managing that risk moving forward.

Most states require the practice, including Illinois — but that mandate does not extend to municipal utilities like the Illinois Municipal Energy Agency. One legislative proposal sponsored by Naperville Democrat Rep. Janet Yang Rohr would change that.

By requiring transparent energy planning every three years, advocates say the legislation would open the door for ratepayers to have more of a say in their energy supply, advocates say.

“It's that type of energy planning process that really gives City Council members and certainly ratepayers and stakeholders an opportunity to really engage in sort of a democratic energy planning process,” Christine Nannicelli, a senior representative in Illinois for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said. “What I'm hearing from different communities, whether it be from Naperville or St. Charles or Batavia is that folks want more of a voice in their energy future and have some real concerns about how coal-dominated their power supply is.”

• Jenny Whidden, jwhidden@dailyherald.com, is a climate change and environment writer working with the Daily Herald through a partnership with Report For America supported by The Nature Conservancy. To help support her work with a tax-deductible donation, see dailyherald.com/rfa.