Prairie State coal plant smart money

In the story, "Clean Coal Dream: A Costly Nightmare," Chicago Tribune cited Geneva's Alderman Ray Pawlak as saying, "We don't know yet whether we have been sold a bill of goods." Here are some facts.

The only way to accurately compare power plant construction costs is to determine the cost per kilowatt. On that basis, the cost of the Prairie State Energy Campus' plant is $2,750 per KW; about the same as other advanced coal power plants.

The industry saw rapid increases in costs over the past several years. Natural gas combined cycle plants costing around $600 per KW a few years ago now cost around $1,200 per KW. Nuclear plants that were to cost less than $2,000 per KW now cost more than $4,000 per KW. Traditional coal power plants costing around $1,000 a few years ago now cost around $2,000 per KW. Supercritical and ultra-supercritical plants are expected to cost around $2,500 per KW.

China is the world leader in supercritical and ultra-supercritical power plants: These plants control emissions far better than traditional coal plants and are 25 percent and 35 percent more efficient, respectively.

All utilities will see higher building costs and will increase their prices accordingly.

The story said it's possible to build an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant for the same cost as the Prairie State Campus. This is deceptive because an IGCC plant built for $4.4 million would be smaller. It's inaccurate because the cost per KW would be greater.

The Future Gen plant to be built in Southern Illinois is expected to cost $5,500 per KW, or twice as much as the Prairie State Campus. Other IGCC plants built in the U.S. cost around $5,000 per KW. Tampa canceled their its proposed IGCC plant.

Cities investing in the Prairie State Campus probably made a wise decision.

Donn Dears

Geneva