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In 2025, when I can build a council study session, call this meeting to order and ask that everyone mute or turn off your cell phones or other electronic devices, appreciate that, and I'll ask manager Rob Beahan to do a roll call for attendance.

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Thank you. Trustee Meyers, Trustee Aphatop here, Trustee Dorman, Trustee Horsick, Trustee Elvinson, President Dearborn.

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Here, Trustee Handler has provided the required notice that she is unable to attend tonight's

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meeting due to work obligations. Our rules provide the Trustee Handler may participate

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remotely unless two-thirds of the board of checks. Is there any objection?

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Hearing none, Trustee Handler may now participate remotely fully in the study session meeting

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and the minutes should so reflect. Trustee Handler. Here. Thank you. Thank you, Rob.

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Now we'll go into a public comment, and this, I'm going to ask if anyone in the audience wants to speak about an item, not on tonight's agenda.

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So nothing to do with a lifework power, supply, Ted, welcome.

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Ted, let's go to the middle one here.

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Oh, a little one there.

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Thank you.

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After my, that fingered button pressing issue yesterday, you kind of know I am here.

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So, yes, I'm back, I've decided that I was a coward last year when I was falsely accused

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of trespassing by the village and I chose to let the case be dismissed and in return

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I gave up my valid section 1983 civil rights complaints, the possibility that a attorney

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had acted onathically, the fact that the police had violated the newly formed body camera

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act law, and ultimately the fact that I gave up my right to traverse the public beach.

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So I've decided I can't live with that anymore.

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So I sent you guys an email.

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I was going to send it today, but fat fingered.

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So I have a number of questions because the idea of trespassing is, you know, there's a legal

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standard and I feel that none of that was met last time.

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And so next week, I'm going to try to do it towards the end of business like when they're

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wrapping up construction so that my general right of access to the Lakeshore won't interfere

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with their specific right of use of the Lakeshore.

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I'm going to head out there.

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If there's still a sense, I'll move it.

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I'll call the police before I go.

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They can come and meet me.

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We can walk the Lakeshore together if they'd like.

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But if someone has a concern that I'm trespassing somewhere, then that person should at that

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time make the allegation, because they don't have right to alleged I'm trespassing on the public

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trust land that's only for the state and the state doesn't even have that right. And they

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have a duty then to show where their property begins and that notice was provided, right?

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You can't just say my property ends at that crack and you can't cross it. So we'll see what happens

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next week, but I'll call you guys. I hope the police will come out, escort me. So that's about it, I'll stop talking.

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Everyone got this except for the village attorney because he wasn't sure that someone,

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I'm sure that someone forwarded it to you, but I just heard that.

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Yeah, confirming receipt of the letter, Ted, thank you, and it will be reviewed.

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So we appreciate that. We have a signed up sheet for public comment.

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There's a John Anderson. And this is not to do with electric.

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Oh, no, wrong public comment.

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Okay, so I will now, anyone else public comment on issues not on the agenda.

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Okay, so we'll close public comment and move on to the IMEA contract renewal follow-up.

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The Winnicka Future Energy Supply Considerations.

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The council has been analyzing the renewal of IMEA Power Sales Contract and capacity purchase

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agreement for over a year.

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conducting three study sessions, specifically in May of 2024, December of 2024, February of 2025,

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and now May of 2025. And participating in the future energy coalition forum, which was fantastic,

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and that was in October of 2024. Tonight, Village, Water and Electric Director Nick Nari will provide an

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of date, followed by energy consultant Mark Pruitt from the Power Bureau.

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And if I could just make a couple, just a couple comments.

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And first of all, we see all of us have a lot of friends in this audience right now.

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So thank you everyone for coming. We really do appreciate it.

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And I think it's fair to say that everyone in this room,

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everybody cares deeply about the environment.

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So there's no question about that.

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I think we could also stipulate and agree that this is a pretty complicated issue and we're

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going to do the best we can to work through it that I pledge.

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It's an area that's in transition, it's evolving, it's somewhat in flux, we all understand

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that we're all looking into the future and the crystal ball can be a little murky as we look

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into the future.

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So, with that being said, the way we're going to do this tonight is Nick Nari is going

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water department and give a presentation followed by Mr. Purwet, who's going to speak.

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And then we agreed with the Wenecke future energy coalition with one of their representatives

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who I interacted with directly to offer 15 minutes of public comment during the public

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comment to make sort of a presentation for 15 minutes, no more than 15 minutes.

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that's going to follow Mr. Pruitt,

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then we will, part of that idea was to maybe cover some of the issues that would otherwise come up in public comment.

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We'd prefer not to have duplicative topics come up. If people still want to have public comment after those presentations,

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that's fine. We'll see how many people want to speak and we'll determine the length of that public comment period.

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And then we'll go around the trustees, we'll have the opportunity to ask questions to any of the speakers.

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And then we'll go from there.

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So that's kind of the agenda for tonight.

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So we'll start out and I'd ask that, you know, this is, we can get all in passion in this.

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If we could keep the clapping or the booing or whatever, down, we'd appreciate that and just make it a good decorum here in Village Hall tonight.

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So we'll start with Nick Nari.

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Thank you, Nick.

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So good evening council.

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Tonight I have the opportunity to present to you our continued efforts on the IMEA contract extension.

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Here's an agenda of what we'll cover tonight.

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I won't spend too much time on this just a timeline.

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Cost of power, additional content.

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Next, presentation from Mr. Prood. I'll make some closing remarks before we engage in public comment.

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Just the timeline. So in February of 2024, that's when the IMEA Board approved the final form of the contract extension.

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When it was initially advertised to members, a member started designing the contract as soon as March of 2024.

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These next three meetings, President Deermord or any coverage is opening remarks.

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Our engagement with stakeholders in the community and our continued efforts was study sessions here in this room.

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of which was with Mark Pruitt in December of 2024.

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On March 11th of this year, based on feedback from the public and from the council, we further

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engage Mr. Pruitt to investigate what we're calling the power marketer option, which would

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be to engage a power marketing type firm on the villages behalf to procure power.

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Those findings will be presented by Mark tonight.

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And overall, when I cast staff and council, I've worked diligently over the past 15 months

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to perform a thorough options analysis and continue our stakeholder engagement.

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So just a brief history with IMEA, IMEA is a nonprofit joint action agency formed and run by its members.

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So IMEA is not listed on the New York Stock Exchange. They do not have any shareholders.

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That's worth mentioning that they are a nonprofit when we're talking about their overall goals and structure.

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IMEA was formed in the spring of 1984, when that was one of 23 charted members.

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It's first CEO, was the former Wenakka Director of Water and Electric, Mr. Gary Zimmerman.

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Wenakka entered into a full requirements contract in June of 1990, and ever since then,

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Wenakka has been buying all of its power from IMEA.

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Wenakka has a direct voice in the power supply through its IMEA board seat,

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so this is really to kind of clarify what IMEA's corporate government structure is like.

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IMEA staff, who you've had up here before, twice, serve and take policy from the board.

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So the village is one of 32 board members, the similar structure to how I am a staff member

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of the village and I serve you as council members of the village of Weneka.

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Down there IMEA staff and Springfield serve out the behest of the council of the members,

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board members who are the 32 communities.

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So just what we're talking about, who IMEA is and who makes the decisions, the board, the 32

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communities are the ones who end up making the decisions at the end of the day.

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Capacity credits, so it's well known that one that is a power generator.

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We have our plant down in the lake front.

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We are entitled to capacity credits through IMEA for having that power plant.

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Our assets are fully dedicated to IMEA, which means they're utilized towards meeting

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the capacity requirements of the agency.

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Part of being a PGM, which is our regional transmission operator.

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Part of being a PGM transmission participant is having adequate capacity to serve your load,

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which Mark will discuss in more detail during his presentation.

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So, our plant goes towards IMEA's capacity accreditation.

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The current plant assets are just over half of our peak load.

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So, we could feed the village about half the village at our peak.

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Gender and capacity provides both a physical and a financial hedge in the energy marketplace.

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So, that power is sold into the energy markets.

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When we're called upon, the plant runs to net our load off the grid.

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This results in a power cost savings through the IMEA and for the village.

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So essentially, and those really hot summer days when the cost of power is really high,

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we're going to call from the operator booth down in Springfield and they'll say,

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we need you to run. We take our, what PGM would see on the grid for our load and take it down

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to a diminimus amount and what that means is that's money saved for us and for the agency as a whole.

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So we socialize those benefits. And it goes without saying that having generation assets also

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able to recover faster from local storms to rate shows, tornadoes that would come through the

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area. Our other neighbors would have difficulty recovering from that, a generational and

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help us recover quicker.

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Capacity credits. So since the inception of the contract, which

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was in 1991, the village has received $47 million in capacity credits. What that amounts

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to is about a 16% reduction on average per year between 2014 and 2024, credit on our bill,

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which has lowered our bill 16%.

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At the most recent IME board meeting,

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which was in April of this year,

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the board unanimously approved a more generous

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capacity payment structure to reflect

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what we're going to talk about here shortly,

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which is increases in power costs

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that are coming in the near term.

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They've made the capacity payments more generous.

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So for current assets from an operation through 2035,

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we stand to make an additional $2.6 million

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in credits over the next 10 years on top of

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the existing $1 million per year,

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we would get for the equipment.

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capacity of payments through IMEA distribute the benefits and risks of generation across the membership.

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So what we're really talking about here is we are not on our own, we're one of 32.

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So when we run and we reduce our load and we produce those cost savings, that is spread throughout the agency.

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IMEA power marketing in dispatch is a 24-7 operation.

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So there's a control center in Springfield, there's someone at the desk 24-7 helping us make these decisions

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doing these power purchases and dispatching.

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In PGM, there's, there are significant financial risks to non-performance, which, again,

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more, can talk on during his presentation.

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If we were a participant, a PGM participant on our own and we're called to generate, and

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we failed to generate, there would be significant financial risk for the village.

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Luckily, we try to avoid that by managing our assets appropriately and maintain

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generation when called upon but if there were a situation where there was a catastrophic failure

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that risk is again is spread throughout the agency so we're not absorbing that risk on our own.

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So market indicators so getting into kind of where we're going in the near-term data centers AI

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is all the talk in the news now. So the Department of Energy forecast that data center energy consumption

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is going to jump from about 4% of total U.S. load in 2023 to anywhere from 6.7 to 12% by

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2028, so a significant rise.

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This rise in demand coincides with the fall in supply,

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due to the planned retirements of thermal resources.

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So coal, natural gas generation is being retired.

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And in basic macroeconomic principles,

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a decline in supply and arise in demand equals rising prices.

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So we're seeing that across the country.

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Power is a commodity.

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It's traded on markets.

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Power really day ahead in year ahead increments.

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PJM, which is the regional transmission operator

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for the Chicago land area, stock clearing prices for 25-26, are up 800% year over year.

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Climate customers, myself included, are going to see that on their bill starting June 1st.

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They'll see significant increases on their supply cost.

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Myso, which is in Southern Southern and Central Illinois, those summer prices for planning

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year 25-26 were up over 2,000%.

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What this really means is myso and PGM are signaling dramatic increases in capacity pricing, and

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is a signal to the market. So what they're signaling is that more generation capacities are needed

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to fill a looming shortfall. So they're looking ahead three, five, even longer than that.

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And saying, there's a shortfall coming. You need to start planning now. We're providing a price

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signal to you to build more generation to fill that gap. What does an adequate capacity?

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That means inability to meet demand, emergency load shedding, which would be blackouts or brownouts, which I'll talk about an example of when that occurred here shortly, back in 2022.

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So, these are some further market indicators, these are just headlines. Again, most of these is centralized around AI and data centers, but the same argument could be made about electrification of vehicles. Essentially, we are adding demand, electrical demand onto the grid that currently does not exist.

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So the power to me, AI demands either curly doesn't exist or has not been brought yet to the market.

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If the US wants to be an AI super power, which I have no doubt that it does, that power needs to come from somewhere.

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It needs to run all the time.

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Data centers are server farms at the end of the day. They run constantly.

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A good fit for that would be nuclear, so you've seen headlines recently about restarting three mile island.

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to power Microsoft data centers or starting up other nuclear campuses.

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Again, the demand is there, the supply needs to be there all the time, and you're seeing

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these market signals.

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So we're mentioning what we're talking about data centers that there are single data centers

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with the demands that's twice the size of the entire village of NECA or more.

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So what we're talking about, the village is competitive competitiveness in the marketplace.

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We are competing out there with the Meadows, the Amazon's of the world who are

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have significant higher demand for their projects.

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So, a case study on reliability and costs.

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For those of you that may recall, this was Christmas Eve 2022.

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This was Winner Storm Elliott.

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This brought almost the entire Eastern grid to near total collapse.

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So, the Eastern grid, everything east of the Mississippi River all the way to the Atlantic.

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What happened was they were freezing temps across the region, you had natural gas supply shortages,

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transportation issues, plants were forced to de-rate or shut down due to extreme cold or gas

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or tailments.

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Career operators underestimated the P-electrical demand, so as good as these folks are at PGM or

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mice so it trying to predict how much power is going to be used, they can make mistakes too.

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So mistakes were made on how much estimated demand there would be for that day, Christmas Eve 22.

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to. What happened? So if that southeast

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move utilities, such as Duke Energy and Tennessee

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Vailability Authority, TVA conducted

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rolling blackouts of more than five gigawatts of

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load. So going through the five gigawatts of load,

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turning power off, turning it back on. Five

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gigawatts is about five times the size of IMEA's

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service area. IMEA's about one gigawatts,

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so it's five times the size of that.

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Coned, which is a New York City,

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which is most of the New York City boroughs,

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was on the verge of total collapse.

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they managed to get through it using liquid natural gas reserves.

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Officials said that if there was a collapse of restoration from the fielder would have taken

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months to restore, essentially this is all to say that the grid is a gigantic machine,

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as a lot of moving pieces, and power by its nature has to be there when you need it, when

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you flip the switch you expect the lights to turn on, that's just how the grid is expected

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to work.

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In terms of pricing for this event, so real-time power prices in the P.J. Amazon jumps to $37,

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$100 a megawatt hour on Christmas Eve 2022, day-at-market, so on Christmas Eve Eve, those

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analysts thought it was only going to cost $250 a megawatt hour, so more than 10 times the cost

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on that day. If you were a utility, the had a broad exposure to the open market, those cost

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would have been passed on to your consumers. So another example, this was Winner Storm Yuri in Texas,

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We're, again, customers were faced with bills, thousands of dollars in electricity just based

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on cost passed down to their consumers.

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What do we not could do?

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We're not Korean.

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Our two diesel generators, which is five megawatts, we were called to bond to do this by

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IMEA.

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We're in those for two straight days, so Christmas Eve and Christmas to lower our load.

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So we're doing our parts to help the grid as a whole to lower that profile.

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So, getting into the cost of power, I mean, I continue to provide affordable, reliable, and sustainable

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powers to our members.

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In fiscal year 2425, so far we are 2.8% below the projected budget for power costs.

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I mean, as power supply costs, the portions of which they control are still less than fiscal year

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2013-2014.

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It's important to mention that stable power costs allow the village to perform long-term planning.

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So, when I could elect your utility and water utilities have no debt, we do everything on

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a pay as you go basis.

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So for us having stable pricing year over year allows us to do long-term planning five

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or 15 year planning, because we know what our power costs are going to be, and what we do

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with that is we make sure we have adequate cash flows to put money back into the utility.

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So we're bearing power lines, we're making improvements to the reliability for when we're

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residents. We can only do that based on really good solid financial planning.

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We're not good capacity credits reduce our overall power cost and we have one of the lowest

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cost portfolios in the agency due to our capacity credits. Instability in the whole

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set market, as I just discussed, is only projected to have a minimal impact on IMEA members,

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due to own assets, own generation assets and other hedges. The only have about 10% of their portfolio

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that was exposed to the open market.

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So very limited exposure.

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In terms of the cost of power, when we're talking about

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what is really a true comparison for Weneka.

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PGM spot pricing, so locational marginal pricing

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is a term used for the cost of power in this region.

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PGM, locational marginal pricing,

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represents the typical effect of the entire RTO.

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So you think of all the customers between here

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and the Atlantic Ocean, you've got a lot of commercial,

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large industrial customers have a lot higher load factor.

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We have a higher load factor, you have a lower cost of power

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because your load is more spread out over those 24 hours of the day.

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When that goes low, it is a majority of residential.

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We are a bedroom community, our load,

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usually peaks between 4 and 7 pm when people are getting home,

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turning on the air conditioning, their appliances,

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So our peak generally coincides with the system peak,

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and our load is very predictable, has a very poor load factor.

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So we don't benefit from that higher note factor that the majority of PGM would benefit from.

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Another point to mention is Comet owns no generation assets, and therefore has no financing cost of pay for those assets.

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So during deregulation, Comet used to own generation. It was spun off to excellent now a constellation.

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So Comet doesn't have to carry any debt to finance long-term supply costs for power plants, which is important to mention.

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PGM, location of marginal pricing, doesn't factor in any

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evaluated services from IMEA that are requirement to be a PGM

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participating member. Mark is going to discuss this during his

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portion of presentation. The labor that's involved with being a

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participating member in PGM is will come at a cost that's either

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directly through village FTE's or contracted either way you're going

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to have to pay for that expertise.

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Comet does add supply-based writers on to bills that are directly reflected.

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It's in the supply portion of customer bills. Those of us that are kind of met customers, there's a supply portion, a delivery portion, and then all the stuff at the bottom, where they add in all the taxes and fees. So, there are supply-based riders on the bills in 2024, those added about 29%, 2 bills, 29%.

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And lastly, PGM, spot pricing, doesn't factor in hedging. So hedging is very important to reduce your exposure to volatility in the marketplace.

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which I was just discussing, 800 percent, 2,000 percent increases in your over year and cost

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of power.

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It would not be prudent business practice for us to go completely un-hage into the power

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markets.

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Here we have a comparison for cost of power.

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So, this table.

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On the left, you have IMEA's total budgeted cost of electricity, which is in dollars per

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megawatt hour.

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You have the Weneck rate and the center column.

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This is when you include our capacity credits, and then on the far right column you have

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a common average historical pricing.

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This is the common price to compare, which

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is a publicly available data through the ICC.

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This is the true comet cost that you

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pay for supply on your bills.

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And I can speak to the accuracy of this data

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as a comet customer.

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While I'm used budget to power supply costs

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are higher than commas over the last 10 years,

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when I could does benefit from those capacity credits.

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And again, the cost for comet does not include any supply

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debt. This particular data doesn't include any supply riders, which would add to this cost.

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And again, so we're strictly talking about power and transmission.

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Eight of the last ten years, when I could have lower power supply costs, then the

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comment price to compare. When you factor in capacity credits that we get for

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generation, we've saved about five point five six million dollars over

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time out of just the last 10 years.

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So additional context for those when we're framing this decision,

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Naperville's Public Utility Advisory Board,

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which is an lower board in the City of Naperville,

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they approved a recommendation from Customize Energy

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Solutions, CES, who is their consultant

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of choice to evaluate Naperville's options.

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It's important to mention Naperville's system demand

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is approximately 10 times ours.

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So when we're talking about being in the marketplace,

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We're about 110th the size of Naperville.

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This is verbatim from their material.

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CES recommends that Naperville continued to procure energy

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and capacity through IMEA while leveraging the MDR clause

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and its contract to explore renewable energy procurement

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via PPAs, which is purchase power agreements.

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By starting with the 10% of its peak load,

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they can gain valuable experience while maintaining

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rates stability through IMEA supply stack,

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which I'll talk to when I get to my sustainability

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section, but really CES is recommending to do both to accomplish both. As of April, as of April

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2025 board meeting, 27 of the 32 members have all signed the power sales contracts and capacity

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purchase agreements as is with zero changes. And although the April 30 deadline passed a decision

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on a possible extension of the open contract period through August is expected to be on the June

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IMEA board meeting, so a decision will be forthcoming on whether or not the open contract

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period can continue.

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And just to mention, in terms of the other members, other 27 who have signed, there's

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one member who is larger than us than terms of load, two members who are very similar sized

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and the majority are smaller than us.

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So getting into sustainability measures, so how can the village increase sustainability on the

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local level?

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One of the big things we could do is utilize the member directed resources, which is MDR.

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This is an option in the new contract, contract extension, currently it's capped at 10% of the peak.

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There is a potential for this to go up, which I will discuss here shortly.

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How could the village achieve this? Well, estimates are that our closed landfill has a solar capacity of about 2.7 megawatts

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for utility scale solar, this would be about 6.5% of our peak demand.

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The village, any item you remember has the option of doing MDR outside of its limits,

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as long as in the state of Illinois.

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The issue there is, if you're thinking of an example where we buy farmland somewhere and

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came county, then you're building a, you're financing a project that you need to do land acquisition,

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permitting, get in the PGMQ if you recall from our last meeting with IMEA. It was a nine-year

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00:27:16,380 --> 00:27:22,360
Q for the BALO solar project, nine years from start to finish. So behind the meters solar

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generation allows us to get that a lot faster than trying to work in the PGMQ which will

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just slow the process down. We can also execute power purchase agreements. That's another

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way to meet MDRs. We could do up to 10% of our load as power purchase agreements.

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That's

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One thing we could do now, if we wanted would be to explore creating a voluntary program for

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renewable energy credit, these are called RECs, to offset emissions from a power consumption.

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IMEA has a program to do this.

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The village can also pursue another contracted resource to do that, but that's something we can

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do now within the framework of our current contract.

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We can pursue operations to make opportunities to make village operations fully net zero,

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the rooftop solar and MDR.

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So what this would look like would be an MDR utility scale solar deployment as well as covering

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public safety building, the village yards with solar panels, with the goal of producing

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as much power as possible, village-owned facilities and operations consumed about 3 million

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kilowatt hours per year.

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So we could get very, very close to being fully net zero, through a variety of rooftop

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solar deployments and MDR.

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We could create programs to incentivize and streamline customer rooftop solar, so we're currently

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actively seeking a higher soul smart designation to accomplish that.

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We can continue to award the maximum allowable IME Energy Efficiency and EV funding.

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We've taken full advantage of this program as a village since 2009.

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From 2009 through the end of last year, by fully utilizing the program, we've reduced our

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of energy purchases about 9.5 million kilowatt hours through efficiency initiatives.

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And lastly, you may know we're in the midst of an AMI deployment, so advanced metering

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00:29:10,340 --> 00:29:10,800
deployment.

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That is going to open up some doors for the village to do some pretty new things that

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we currently cannot do.

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One of those is called demand response, where you could create a program to incentivize

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00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:26,540
residents to help the lower the villages peak demand during those hot summer days, which

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obviously would lower our costs.

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So that's something that AMI is going to open the door for us.

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More on sustainability measures.

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00:29:35,510 --> 00:29:38,730
So again, DMDR contract revision is in the extension,

398
00:29:39,330 --> 00:29:41,570
but it can be, the IMEs committed to roll it forward

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00:29:41,570 --> 00:29:42,550
if we were to sign.

400
00:29:43,110 --> 00:29:45,350
So we don't need to wait until 2035 to do MDR.

401
00:29:45,930 --> 00:29:49,270
If the contract extension was signed, we could do it day one.

402
00:29:51,190 --> 00:29:53,030
10% is just a start.

403
00:29:53,290 --> 00:29:54,930
I know there's been some questions about kind of go more

404
00:29:54,930 --> 00:29:58,190
than 10% kind of the approach is kind of a crawl

405
00:29:58,190 --> 00:29:59,650
before you walk type approach.

406
00:30:00,780 --> 00:30:17,900
We know we can't even do 10% within the village limits. So in order to ask for more than 10%, we would really need to demonstrate to the IMEA Board, third to one of the communities, how are we going to do more than 10%. So we really have to have a plan to accomplish that before we even ask for an increase.

407
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:23,460
Village staff are actively working on pillar four of the comprehensive plan, which includes

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00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:25,380
drafting a climate action plan.

409
00:30:25,820 --> 00:30:28,260
The village also recently hired a sustainability coordinator.

410
00:30:29,900 --> 00:30:34,140
The village, as an IME board member, has a vested interest in shaping the power portfolio

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00:30:34,140 --> 00:30:40,660
and ensuring progress on the long term sustainability plan for 32 member communities in Illinois.

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00:30:42,180 --> 00:30:43,800
Last thing, IMEA is a non-profit.

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00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:51,760
So there would be a business incentive for pursuing renewable resources that are, as the overall market shifts towards an economical,

414
00:30:51,980 --> 00:30:52,920
dispatchable solution.

415
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Those are going to lower costs to the membership.

416
00:30:57,380 --> 00:31:00,480
So IMEA works on behalf of 32 member communities.

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00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:06,940
So if there is a renewable or, in some sense, a safe, cost-effective nuclear solution,

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00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,760
that would be dispatchable and would present lower costs to our entire power portfolio,

419
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,640
So, the NIME would have no reason not to pursue it.

420
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:19,840
The goal as a nonprofit is to give us the best, best, the lowest cost product.

421
00:31:20,460 --> 00:31:24,650
So, that's the end of my portion of the presentation from now.

422
00:31:24,730 --> 00:31:25,410
I'll turn it over to Mark.

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00:31:25,410 --> 00:31:26,950
I'll do a quick introduction here.

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00:31:27,770 --> 00:31:31,450
So, Mark Prue, it has more than 30 years of experience in the Illinois Energy sector.

425
00:31:31,930 --> 00:31:36,290
Since 2011, Mark has served as the independent energy consultant, serving clients such as

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00:31:36,290 --> 00:31:40,170
Argonne National Laboratory, the Illinois Senate, and independent power producers.

427
00:31:41,090 --> 00:31:45,610
Mark served as the first director of the Illinois Power Agency, where he secured a

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00:31:45,610 --> 00:31:50,050
short city supply and behalf of approximately 4.7 million residential and small commercial

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00:31:50,050 --> 00:31:52,370
customers served by Comet and Amran.

430
00:31:53,070 --> 00:31:57,190
Mark is also an adjunct, a associate professor in the Master of Science and Energy and Sustainability

431
00:31:57,190 --> 00:31:59,170
Program at North Western University.

432
00:31:59,650 --> 00:32:01,410
So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Prue.

433
00:32:01,950 --> 00:32:09,590
Can I just say that we were first introduced to Mark at the future energy coalition forum

434
00:32:09,590 --> 00:32:16,210
back in October, so the mark had no previous affiliation with the village.

435
00:32:16,530 --> 00:32:21,790
That's where we met Mr. Pruitt, we were impressed and in March of this year we knew

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00:32:21,790 --> 00:32:29,690
we needed some muscle in this endeavor to understand this decision better and so the

437
00:32:29,690 --> 00:32:32,110
village retained Mr. Pruitt in this capacity.

438
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:43,460
Thank you very much. I appreciate the introduction and appreciate being invited back. So thank

439
00:32:43,460 --> 00:32:54,240
you. As Nick mentioned, my task was a follow-up. My first work with the village dealt with

440
00:32:54,240 --> 00:33:00,340
identifying what was the range of options available to the municipal utility moving forward.

441
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:06,060
And then after a little bit of reflection, the direction came back to say, Mark, did you

442
00:33:06,060 --> 00:33:13,000
tell us a little bit more about this power marketer option of contracting out this power supply

443
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:19,980
portion of the operation of the utility, and I was very excited to do that because as I

444
00:33:19,980 --> 00:33:26,940
shared with staff a little bit earlier, this April celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first

445
00:33:26,940 --> 00:33:35,060
electric contract that I ever negotiated. So it's been a while. I enjoy doing it. My family

446
00:33:35,060 --> 00:33:41,600
is tired of hearing about it, so I'm glad to have a new audience to share with. And I have the

447
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:49,060
results of some of my analysis and kind of a fit analysis for the municipal operation here.

448
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:55,220
So, before jumping into, well, what would the price be and who could we contract with?

449
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:57,860
I wanted to start a little bit more broad.

450
00:34:00,500 --> 00:34:05,560
When we're thinking about the municipal utility, we need to think about where it resides

451
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,300
within the whole span of the electric system.

452
00:34:08,300 --> 00:34:12,340
So this is a very simple diagram, it starts with power plants over here on the left,

453
00:34:13,620 --> 00:34:17,980
substations to step up the voltage to the interstate transmission system,

454
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:24,920
down voltage to substations through local distribution lines and then to the home.

455
00:34:25,620 --> 00:34:31,000
And this is the point where the municipal utility resides anywhere from the meter of your home,

456
00:34:31,340 --> 00:34:35,700
out to that transformer that connects to the interstate transmission system, right?

457
00:34:36,720 --> 00:34:41,640
everything to the left of that, the power plants, the transmission lines, the substations,

458
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,720
how they operate, when they operate, at what level do they operate, what happens if

459
00:34:45,720 --> 00:34:52,080
they can't operate, that's all the responsibility of PJM, and that's really where I think

460
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:59,340
if I were to start a municipal utility, that's where I would commence my thinking to say,

461
00:34:59,460 --> 00:35:05,140
let's worry about who we buy from, of course that's important, but how do we even get

462
00:35:05,140 --> 00:35:11,520
to a point where we can take delivery of power as a wholesale power provider, and it's in

463
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,140
PGM where that all has to come together.

464
00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:17,960
So this is just a quick map of the PGM service territory.

465
00:35:18,140 --> 00:35:19,880
Some of you may have seen it or not.

466
00:35:20,060 --> 00:35:25,220
PGM stands for at least originally stood for Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland.

467
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:32,800
So this was the cooperative buying group and transmission cooperative between the utilities

468
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:34,500
that were in that tri-state area.

469
00:35:34,500 --> 00:35:41,440
and it's grown since then, and essentially this looks like a club of utilities, and that's exactly what it is.

470
00:35:41,980 --> 00:35:51,560
This is the whole premise of PGM is about reliability, and they get to reliability by sharing resources.

471
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:58,560
The whole idea of sharing resources is not every power plant needs to be operating at full output all the time.

472
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:04,660
Right? That's not always efficient. By coordinating between owners of different power plants and

473
00:36:04,660 --> 00:36:11,760
managing the transmission lines that link those power plants to the load centers, that's what PJM does.

474
00:36:12,260 --> 00:36:20,180
Okay? So if the whole thing is about reliability and transparency, then you really need to have a lot of coordination.

475
00:36:20,740 --> 00:36:24,940
And that's really where a lot of the work comes in being a wholesale market participant.

476
00:36:24,940 --> 00:36:33,550
a PGM participant is what you would need to be if you were to separate from IMEA, go on

477
00:36:33,550 --> 00:36:38,910
your own, and find someone to sell you power. There's plenty of people to sell you power.

478
00:36:39,290 --> 00:36:44,690
Lots of them. I reached out to a dozen, went into in-depth interviews with eight of them. We

479
00:36:44,690 --> 00:36:50,690
can always talk to more, and they are very interested in your load. I'll just tell you that.

480
00:36:50,690 --> 00:36:53,950
you look like a great opportunity to them, right?

481
00:36:54,910 --> 00:36:56,290
And these are familiar names.

482
00:36:56,450 --> 00:36:58,590
You see them advertising in the billboards of the side

483
00:36:58,590 --> 00:37:02,190
of the highlights, constellation, it's NRG.

484
00:37:02,670 --> 00:37:04,830
It's these companies that are, you know,

485
00:37:04,870 --> 00:37:07,130
a know, I typically call retail energy suppliers.

486
00:37:07,250 --> 00:37:09,650
But I've transacted with them for a number of years

487
00:37:09,650 --> 00:37:11,230
and many different iterations.

488
00:37:11,710 --> 00:37:15,270
And now sometimes, generations of employees.

489
00:37:16,470 --> 00:37:29,230
But what I think is really key to bear in mind as a municipal utility, as a PGA market participant, is that out of all these six categories that I highlight here.

490
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:37,480
Your retail energy supplier, or your power marketer, or, you know, what would we call them, alternative providers.

491
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:45,420
They're only going to consistently provide you services in market operations and load management.

492
00:37:46,420 --> 00:37:50,980
That's their area of expertise. That's what they really do best.

493
00:37:51,220 --> 00:37:54,960
And that's where across the board, they all say, yes, we will do that.

494
00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:00,560
to varying degrees, they would consider some of these other categories, and some of these things

495
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:05,000
they can't do for you. So, as a for instance of something they can't do for you.

496
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:12,420
Being, they can't be the PGM number for you. You're a load serving entity. You need to be a PGM

497
00:38:12,420 --> 00:38:18,760
member. You need to fill out the application. You will need also to enter into four separate agreements

498
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:24,880
with PGM that identify how you are going to operate and that you agree to meeting the stipulations

499
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:29,240
of PJM as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, right?

500
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:33,780
This is all about reliability, so there's lots of contract language about who does what

501
00:38:33,780 --> 00:38:36,620
when and what happens when that doesn't occur.

502
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:44,660
There's also some things that maybe your local municipal staff should be doing or contractors

503
00:38:44,660 --> 00:38:49,360
should be doing separate from your supplier, such as figuring out your general planning for

504
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:55,400
load forecast, or your legal activities, or just managing your transactions.

505
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:58,820
These are not file and forget contracts.

506
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:03,360
This is not buying the extended warranty on the washer dryer set.

507
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:09,120
This is something that has to be opened and examined every day, and it's going to take time

508
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:10,120
and money.

509
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:14,420
Can a retail supplier do this or a power market or do this for you?

510
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:15,080
Yes.

511
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:20,480
But they're going to do it at a cost plus their margin, right?

512
00:39:21,340 --> 00:39:24,500
So, of course, you can contract out for a lot of things,

513
00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:28,520
but my sense is that if it were me,

514
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,200
I'd probably let them focus on what they do best,

515
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:33,240
and you represent your interests.

516
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:35,640
Because, you know, in the end,

517
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:37,280
they're there as your contractor.

518
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:42,300
They're not there to outsource your management function.

519
00:39:42,300 --> 00:39:48,800
You know, that's something that large manufacturers I deal with have had to come to grips with over time.

520
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:56,320
So, how do these entities operate? There's two categories. These are my labels.

521
00:39:56,900 --> 00:40:00,920
There might be other labels in the market, but most of them are resellers.

522
00:40:01,060 --> 00:40:05,660
So these are your constellation energies, your energies, your retail energy suppliers.

523
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:10,340
There's a number of them that are operating in the state and in P.J.M.

524
00:40:10,340 --> 00:40:16,380
and they're excellent. They do very, very good work. I transact with them on behalf of clients all the time.

525
00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:23,200
Their business model is that they buy wholesale power, and then they sell retail power. They make a mark up in the middle.

526
00:40:24,420 --> 00:40:34,660
That's it. They take big chunks of power, probably 50 megawatt blocks, and then they break it down into smaller blocks for sale to customers who don't need 50 megawatts at a time.

527
00:40:35,660 --> 00:40:38,640
You see some examples of their constellation, direct energy,

528
00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:41,540
cow pine, and they make an adder.

529
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:43,840
If you need them to do more services for you,

530
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:47,500
don't crease the adder if you need less, the charge less.

531
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:50,000
So, the idea here is, okay,

532
00:40:50,140 --> 00:40:52,480
they can get this all scheduled and delivered for me.

533
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,040
Usually, you want to tell them how you need this done.

534
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:59,500
Do you need them to secure all of your electricity needs

535
00:40:59,500 --> 00:41:01,500
at a fixed price with no variability?

536
00:41:01,500 --> 00:41:05,660
or do you need them to secure 50% of your needs,

537
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:09,000
and you leave the other 50% exposed to the market variability?

538
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,780
These are all decisions that you need to make, and they carry them out.

539
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:16,180
Then you have service bureaus.

540
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:17,940
Service bureaus are a little bit different.

541
00:41:18,340 --> 00:41:19,920
They operate as advisors.

542
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:22,700
They will find your suppliers for you.

543
00:41:22,740 --> 00:41:25,280
They will help review contracts with you.

544
00:41:25,380 --> 00:41:29,380
They will help negotiate price in terms with suppliers,

545
00:41:29,380 --> 00:41:31,860
but they're not going to sign the contract for you.

546
00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:37,300
They will get it all together for you, but ultimately, you need to execute on those contracts.

547
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:43,420
And there's some very large organizations to do this, ACES, for instance, is an entity

548
00:41:43,420 --> 00:41:48,180
outside of Indianapolis and Carmel that right down the street from Miso, who you heard Nick

549
00:41:48,180 --> 00:41:50,800
mentioned, a wholesale market manager in the Midwest.

550
00:41:51,340 --> 00:41:56,860
They manage wholesale transactions for a range of electrical operatives, municipal, large

551
00:41:56,860 --> 00:42:02,800
industrials, right? So they're out there. They do a very nice job and they're very competent,

552
00:42:03,340 --> 00:42:07,240
but they will only take direction. They are not going to execute on your behalf.

553
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:16,740
So a little bit small. And what I tried to do is draw in my experience. Now have I ever run

554
00:42:16,740 --> 00:42:23,360
a wholesale operation? No. I did run a retail operation that delivered natural gas and electricity

555
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:28,340
to do all the state facilities for a number of years and had to bump into a lot of these

556
00:42:28,340 --> 00:42:30,260
same functions at that level.

557
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:37,360
And then I also managed the Illinois Power Agency, which managed transactions between the

558
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:42,060
combat, Amarin, and wholesalers, and I observed their operations fairly closely.

559
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:46,700
Could you staff with less than what I've designated here?

560
00:42:47,220 --> 00:42:48,200
Yes, you can always go cheaper.

561
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:57,280
But my sense is that these are really the fixed services that any municipal utility is going to need.

562
00:42:58,260 --> 00:43:04,220
You would probably need the same staffing if there were two municipal utilities, or maybe even three municipal utilities.

563
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:08,940
These are more or less fixed prices or fixed costs of the operation.

564
00:43:08,940 --> 00:43:27,020
So, a lot of these are what IMEA provides for you right now, and to my understanding, most of the other municipal utilities operating within PGM are part of larger organizations that contract out or share these services amongst themselves.

565
00:43:27,020 --> 00:43:41,660
So being a solo operator in PGM, pretty rare, unless you're a large investor on utility, but again, you're going to be incurring, I think somewhere in the neighborhood of these costs for these services.

566
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:53,240
Whether you do it in yourself or if you contract it out, that's not really the material issue. The material issue is to meet your PGM obligations, you need to really treat this as a business.

567
00:43:53,240 --> 00:43:57,300
and you're going to sign contracts, it will obligate you to perform a number of these functions.

568
00:44:00,230 --> 00:44:03,090
So, can you bid this out?

569
00:44:03,330 --> 00:44:08,190
Well, based on my background, I'm from to say, yeah, of course you can bid it out.

570
00:44:08,330 --> 00:44:10,510
I like bidding out, that's what I do for a living.

571
00:44:11,410 --> 00:44:13,730
But let's think about what you would have to do to do that.

572
00:44:13,930 --> 00:44:20,190
Once you've set up and you are all ready to go with your operation,

573
00:44:20,190 --> 00:44:27,430
You know how you need to perform for PJM, you know who's going to do what, now you've decided who you're going to bid this out to.

574
00:44:29,370 --> 00:44:30,170
Here's your challenge.

575
00:44:30,430 --> 00:44:31,870
First challenge is going to be.

576
00:44:32,110 --> 00:44:32,710
Not your volume.

577
00:44:32,790 --> 00:44:34,090
Your volume, I think, is fine.

578
00:44:34,430 --> 00:44:38,530
Your larger than, you're about the size of a large manufacturing entity.

579
00:44:39,210 --> 00:44:42,710
So you're within the realm of what a lot of suppliers can provide.

580
00:44:43,190 --> 00:44:46,050
You're pretty small when it comes to a whole sale entity.

581
00:44:46,230 --> 00:44:46,830
But that's okay.

582
00:44:47,030 --> 00:44:47,830
That can be managed.

583
00:44:47,830 --> 00:44:51,030
What I think your challenge is going to be here is your timeline.

584
00:44:52,270 --> 00:44:55,490
That's the fact that you're going to be under an agreement

585
00:44:55,490 --> 00:44:59,810
for your supply with IMEA through 2035.

586
00:45:00,340 --> 00:45:07,520
So, part of what you're, I think, going to be asking is, can you be my power supplier and start deliveries in 2035?

587
00:45:10,090 --> 00:45:17,110
I think most providers are inclined to say yes, but it's going to be really hard for them to give you a price.

588
00:45:17,890 --> 00:45:20,990
And that's because we don't know what the price is going to be in 2035.

589
00:45:22,150 --> 00:45:27,030
You know, as an analogy, buying large equipment like a fire truck or property.

590
00:45:27,030 --> 00:45:33,130
You know, it's hard enough if you're going to try to do it face to face and try to get the

591
00:45:33,130 --> 00:45:35,450
transaction done today or this week or this month.

592
00:45:36,250 --> 00:45:42,010
If you are trying to negotiate a transaction that actually closes 10 years from now, you're

593
00:45:42,010 --> 00:45:44,730
introducing a lot of different risks into that scenario.

594
00:45:45,230 --> 00:45:46,530
So I just identified a few of those.

595
00:45:46,550 --> 00:45:47,910
So there's market risk.

596
00:45:48,110 --> 00:45:51,510
First question is, what will the wholesale price be in the future?

597
00:45:52,150 --> 00:45:52,490
I don't know.

598
00:45:52,490 --> 00:46:04,230
is next set on a year to year, year over year basis. Capacity rates in PGM rose 800% did we know

599
00:46:04,230 --> 00:46:08,750
that? No, did I know it was coming? I knew it was going to be higher. I felt my heart was

600
00:46:08,750 --> 00:46:13,030
going to be higher. If I knew it was going to be that high, I probably would have gone short and

601
00:46:13,030 --> 00:46:19,050
you know, done pretty well. But I didn't because I don't know. And that's a few months

602
00:46:19,050 --> 00:46:24,390
down the road, right? This is years. So this is a real challenge. How do you know what that

603
00:46:24,390 --> 00:46:29,350
power is going to be worth. You've got regulatory risk. How do we know that we contract

604
00:46:29,350 --> 00:46:35,570
for today is going to be allowed in the market ten years from now? Can there be new capacity

605
00:46:35,570 --> 00:46:41,730
requirements that are imposed by FERC or PJM in the intervening ten years? And if those

606
00:46:41,730 --> 00:46:48,830
capacity requirements increase for your entity, who bears that added cost? Don't know, you're going

607
00:46:48,830 --> 00:46:54,450
have to work that out and to look at that potential complication.

608
00:46:55,050 --> 00:46:56,030
And then there's performance risk.

609
00:46:56,030 --> 00:47:00,670
I have up here, you know, will the village actually meet its obligation and take delivery?

610
00:47:01,130 --> 00:47:06,150
Well, I had another thought here when I was reading the energy user news this afternoon.

611
00:47:06,950 --> 00:47:10,610
What if your supplier is not there in 10 years, right?

612
00:47:11,030 --> 00:47:13,750
Or what if that supplier is something you don't want to be associated with?

613
00:47:13,750 --> 00:47:22,510
The thing that caught my eye was great company NRG, just executed a multi-billion dollar transaction

614
00:47:22,510 --> 00:47:29,490
with another company called LS Power to purchase 18 natural gas plants power plants.

615
00:47:30,570 --> 00:47:37,170
So if you'd contracted with LS Power, how would they be able to honor the obligation

616
00:47:37,170 --> 00:47:42,870
for delivery in 2035 if they had just sold their generating assets?

617
00:47:42,870 --> 00:47:45,790
That's assuming those generating assets we're going to support your contract.

618
00:47:46,590 --> 00:47:51,790
And then secondly, what if you'd contracted with NRG because they were a clean energy

619
00:47:51,790 --> 00:47:55,830
firm or cleaner energy firm and now they've just taken on a bunch of natural gas?

620
00:47:56,110 --> 00:47:57,170
Is that a problem for you?

621
00:47:57,230 --> 00:47:59,110
Is a recreational risk, I guess.

622
00:47:59,690 --> 00:48:03,910
I'm not saying they did anything bad, but it just illustrates that things change in this

623
00:48:03,910 --> 00:48:08,950
industry, not just price, I don't know, really basis, not just the trend on a seasonal basis,

624
00:48:08,950 --> 00:48:14,070
But the actors and the participants and their drivers are also going to change.

625
00:48:14,350 --> 00:48:20,210
So trying to encapsulate all those potentialities in a contract today, I think is going to

626
00:48:20,210 --> 00:48:23,710
take an elevated level of expertise and time.

627
00:48:24,130 --> 00:48:25,710
And I can you get there?

628
00:48:25,870 --> 00:48:27,070
I imagine you could.

629
00:48:27,350 --> 00:48:28,830
Are there going to be some things to get missed?

630
00:48:29,050 --> 00:48:29,610
Absolutely.

631
00:48:30,590 --> 00:48:31,830
I can guarantee it.

632
00:48:32,350 --> 00:48:33,790
Can you live with it?

633
00:48:33,930 --> 00:48:34,030
Maybe.

634
00:48:34,790 --> 00:48:42,810
But you have to start talking with some of these entities and get some of their ideas on what maybe could be done to mitigate that risk.

635
00:48:43,530 --> 00:48:48,570
So, to that end, you know, just very quickly on to conclusions.

636
00:48:50,370 --> 00:49:00,970
I really think that the first thing to think about if you're going to go away other than IMEA is to take title and ownership of your PGM membership.

637
00:49:00,970 --> 00:49:02,310
I think that that's going to be critical.

638
00:49:02,730 --> 00:49:07,490
You're a load serving entity that should be part of your process moving forward.

639
00:49:08,030 --> 00:49:12,170
You're going to need some time to figure out how that works and how you work in the context

640
00:49:12,170 --> 00:49:13,130
of PJM.

641
00:49:13,250 --> 00:49:15,390
I'd give yourself some time to do that.

642
00:49:15,930 --> 00:49:18,730
Nice thing is you have some runway here, right?

643
00:49:19,350 --> 00:49:20,610
So it doesn't have to be done next week.

644
00:49:21,030 --> 00:49:25,310
I also think that once you've figured out how this is going to work and who's going to do what,

645
00:49:25,550 --> 00:49:29,050
you're going to need some time to find that alternative provider.

646
00:49:29,050 --> 00:49:34,750
I have a year here. Could have been done in less time, of course. But I was just trying to give you

647
00:49:34,750 --> 00:49:39,190
a flavor of a number of the things you're going to have to work through. I would not be surprised

648
00:49:39,190 --> 00:49:45,330
if you start talking to five, and you're going to find that some of the interested parties

649
00:49:46,030 --> 00:49:50,530
taper off a little bit in their level of interest, as things become more complicated because they

650
00:49:50,530 --> 00:49:56,470
have other things that they could be doing as suppliers. There's very few one-stop shop examples

651
00:49:56,470 --> 00:50:03,190
out there. So as I was trying to express with the kind of the all the list of things that PJ

652
00:50:03,190 --> 00:50:09,790
members need to do and what internal or external staffing might need to look like in above

653
00:50:09,790 --> 00:50:17,990
and beyond a power supplier or a power marketer, just bear in mind that you're going to have to

654
00:50:17,990 --> 00:50:23,690
be very active in the membership here. This is another function. You're going to be part of

655
00:50:23,690 --> 00:50:27,690
organization at PGM that puts penalties and obligations on you.

656
00:50:27,890 --> 00:50:30,990
Hopefully you get some benefits, but you're going to have to perform.

657
00:50:32,670 --> 00:50:35,530
And then lastly, you know, what's kind of unique,

658
00:50:36,010 --> 00:50:38,550
I'm sorry, not kind of, it's very unique about your processes.

659
00:50:39,050 --> 00:50:44,410
When we've looked at wholesale operations or wholesale options for clients,

660
00:50:44,790 --> 00:50:49,750
typically they've been looking for economies of scale,

661
00:50:49,850 --> 00:50:51,650
you know, large university, they say,

662
00:50:51,650 --> 00:50:53,590
we keep getting retail contracts.

663
00:50:53,830 --> 00:50:55,590
We think we can do better as a wholesale entity.

664
00:50:56,030 --> 00:50:58,830
Fine, we take a look at wholesale operations then.

665
00:50:59,090 --> 00:51:00,590
Or they say, we have some generation

666
00:51:00,590 --> 00:51:03,310
that we simply just can't monetize as a retail customer.

667
00:51:03,670 --> 00:51:05,490
And we want to be a wholesale participant,

668
00:51:05,730 --> 00:51:08,490
so we can generate or maximize our revenues from that asset.

669
00:51:08,970 --> 00:51:09,850
That's fine too.

670
00:51:10,250 --> 00:51:12,550
Neither of those really seem to be the case with you all.

671
00:51:12,950 --> 00:51:16,670
So I think maybe one last item here is,

672
00:51:16,670 --> 00:51:22,110
Really, in the absence of a direct economic impetus

673
00:51:22,110 --> 00:51:25,090
or a securitization of your generating assets,

674
00:51:25,190 --> 00:51:27,710
I think you're going to have to get real clarity

675
00:51:27,710 --> 00:51:30,890
in terms of what it is you're wanting to accomplish with this

676
00:51:30,890 --> 00:51:34,290
because that's going to feed exactly how you're going to position

677
00:51:34,290 --> 00:51:37,330
your power marketer and then how you're going to arrange

678
00:51:37,330 --> 00:51:43,510
your other PGM obligatory functions in this entire context, right?

679
00:51:43,870 --> 00:51:45,730
Sometimes the economics make it real clear

680
00:51:45,730 --> 00:51:50,910
how you're going to do things, absent that economic driver in this case, I think you're going

681
00:51:50,910 --> 00:51:55,010
to be a little bit different, which is fine. But that's why I think having a bit of time,

682
00:51:55,130 --> 00:52:01,170
as I mentioned up at the top, having that extended period of time to figure out what you want

683
00:52:01,170 --> 00:52:05,850
to get out of this is going to be very important because you're operating a little bit differently

684
00:52:05,850 --> 00:52:11,150
than some of the others in the sector. So, again, it's nothing wrong with that. But getting clarity

685
00:52:11,150 --> 00:52:20,590
on your mission when you're taking on this type of task risk obligation is going to be

686
00:52:20,590 --> 00:52:22,710
advisable because it has to be worth it.

687
00:52:22,890 --> 00:52:24,270
So thank you very much for your time.

688
00:52:26,300 --> 00:52:26,860
Thank you Mark.

689
00:52:30,590 --> 00:52:31,490
What's that?

690
00:52:32,430 --> 00:52:35,130
Okay. Okay, Nick.

691
00:52:43,570 --> 00:52:46,510
Thank you, Mark, so I just got some summary comments here.

692
00:52:47,450 --> 00:52:50,070
Just a reminder, I was a founding member of IMEA.

693
00:52:50,310 --> 00:52:56,230
We've taken a strong roll in shaping IMEA policy over time, and continue to do so going forward.

694
00:52:56,930 --> 00:52:59,200
Those of you who had the pleasure of working with Mr. Brian Kees.

695
00:52:59,830 --> 00:53:02,090
You recall he was a fierce advocate.

696
00:53:02,090 --> 00:53:07,810
So we have a candidate for the villages, benefits, down there in Springfield, energy efficiency,

697
00:53:08,590 --> 00:53:10,970
member directed resource, generation policy.

698
00:53:11,370 --> 00:53:14,750
These are all things that Brian lobbied for you on your behalf down in Springfield.

699
00:53:15,050 --> 00:53:18,130
We can continue to do that exercise going forward.

700
00:53:19,330 --> 00:53:22,450
When that goes realized, significant financial benefits on this power portfolio.

701
00:53:23,010 --> 00:53:28,050
Since 1991, again, this allows us to provide stable, competitive rates to our customers.

702
00:53:28,050 --> 00:53:32,010
we can continue to inject capital into our system and improve reliability

703
00:53:32,010 --> 00:53:33,930
while remaining physically responsible.

704
00:53:35,170 --> 00:53:38,370
The energy markets entering a period of transition and volatility

705
00:53:39,190 --> 00:53:42,010
don't just take it from me, listen to what Mark just described.

706
00:53:43,050 --> 00:53:46,410
The question is, is when that has a small utility, better position

707
00:53:46,410 --> 00:53:50,630
to enter this volatile marketplace on its own, or as a part of a larger agency

708
00:53:50,630 --> 00:53:53,830
of like-minded non-profit municipal systems?

709
00:53:54,890 --> 00:53:57,650
Liability is the number one priority of career operators and utilities.

710
00:53:59,230 --> 00:54:02,870
Col-based generation is going to run an Illinois until CG mandates,

711
00:54:03,510 --> 00:54:05,530
with or without Weneca's participation in IMA.

712
00:54:05,770 --> 00:54:06,830
That's just the fact.

713
00:54:08,150 --> 00:54:11,010
PGM and MISO's responsibility is to make sure that adequate,

714
00:54:11,410 --> 00:54:13,950
dispatchable resources are available in real time

715
00:54:14,390 --> 00:54:17,490
to constantly meet demand regardless of the resource type.

716
00:54:17,530 --> 00:54:19,470
Again, reliability is the number one priority.

717
00:54:20,870 --> 00:54:23,330
Weneca has options, as I mentioned, to increase sustainability

718
00:54:23,330 --> 00:54:28,170
locally while benefiting from the stability of the IMEA power supply cost.

719
00:54:28,510 --> 00:54:32,790
This is the precisely the recommendation that customers customize energy solutions

720
00:54:32,790 --> 00:54:33,910
gave to Naperville.

721
00:54:37,260 --> 00:54:38,400
And with that, I am okay.

722
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:39,560
Thank you, Nick.

723
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:46,160
As mentioned earlier, we'll hold on questions from Council to the various presenters.

724
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:48,760
And then we're departing a little bit.

725
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,500
We're open public comment now, but we're going to open it with our agreement

726
00:54:52,500 --> 00:54:58,180
with the one at the future energy coalition to give them 15 minutes to make a presentation,

727
00:54:58,780 --> 00:55:03,800
which I think will be interesting, and Lathamon, Lathamon, Lathamon here there's Lathamon,

728
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:07,900
and I actually have a biography you want me to read this Lathamon.

729
00:55:08,060 --> 00:55:14,780
So Lathamon is an energy industry veteran and clean power advocate with over 20 years of international

730
00:55:14,780 --> 00:55:21,360
experience in the engineering construction and transformation of energy assets, spanning hydrocarbons,

731
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:24,000
natural resources and electrical industries.

732
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:29,580
Lath has lived in UNECO for 11 years, along with his wife, Lauren, daughter Sophia, and Victoria.

733
00:55:29,820 --> 00:55:35,140
He currently leads growth and development from the largest energy transition consulting and

734
00:55:35,140 --> 00:55:42,740
audit companies, eco engineers, LRQA, driving decarbonization and environmental advancement globally.

735
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:48,880
Some of the highlights in Lath's energy career have included a strategic advisor to OPEC from

736
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:54,320
2006 through 2009 in leading the concept development for the World's largest concentrated solar

737
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:59,820
plant in Morocco, a $9 billion clean power plant. So this is a person with some experience

738
00:55:59,820 --> 00:56:01,040
thanks for being here.

739
00:56:02,240 --> 00:56:09,500
Thank you very much for that very generous introduction and I think that really is why the

740
00:56:09,500 --> 00:56:16,440
future energy coalition has asked me to consolidate the remarks and present to you. And even

741
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:23,440
I know I have that kind of experience in energy for these last sort of 25 years that I've worked in it.

742
00:56:24,460 --> 00:56:29,660
This process that I've been in working with the community here in Winacker has really opened my eyes

743
00:56:29,660 --> 00:56:33,880
to the fact that actually we have amazing expertise in this community.

744
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:41,440
I've had the opportunity to talk to very fine legal minds, people who have done really interesting work

745
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:49,380
commercially in energy and power procurement, and people who are developing really important

746
00:56:49,380 --> 00:56:56,620
renewables projects live in Winneca. So in addition to engaging with our community on this

747
00:56:56,620 --> 00:57:01,820
topic to develop these remarks, I've also had the opportunities to talk to some of our peers

748
00:57:01,820 --> 00:57:07,740
in some of the other communities that are considering the same contract extension that we

749
00:57:07,740 --> 00:57:15,680
with IMEA. And I guess it's in spirit of that that I would say that the conclusion that I would

750
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:21,640
like to talk about that I've come to with regard to the extension of this contract is that

751
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:30,160
the contract is a really bad contract and it is a really bad time to actually be extending that

752
00:57:30,160 --> 00:57:36,680
contract right now. And by bad time I would just point out to the fact that we are in a contract

753
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:45,200
which extends through to 2035, but this is 2025, and I think one of the important points

754
00:57:45,200 --> 00:57:51,200
that were made during the engagement of the power marketers that were done in the report

755
00:57:51,200 --> 00:58:00,640
that we've seen is that it really is too early to make commitments about energy provision what

756
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:05,440
that my cost, what the generation mix might be. And I think that's actually a good point.

757
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:13,660
it is too early. So, you know, the idea that we are in somewhat of a high pressure environment

758
00:58:13,660 --> 00:58:21,200
where we need to, you know, respond to a time limitation to provide our commitment this early

759
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:27,240
on. It really does work against our own interests, actually, because in some of my remarks here,

760
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:33,640
I'll explain that. I think we do see a very significant opportunity which will work in our favor

761
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:39,860
to develop an energy plan and to identify what our goals are and how we're going to meet those

762
00:58:39,860 --> 00:58:50,680
goals through a process to get what we want out of this. But just thinking about all that we've

763
00:58:50,680 --> 00:58:59,720
heard in terms of the economics, I will say one of the things in this changing world environment

764
00:58:59,720 --> 00:59:05,480
that has been very consistent and is very clear, if we look back over the last 15, 20 years,

765
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:12,400
is that the cost of establishing generation from renewables pretty consistently and quite dramatically

766
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:20,280
decreases over time. And the cost of obtaining power from conventionally generated fossil plants

767
00:59:20,280 --> 00:59:29,640
goes up over time. So if we're contemplating here, is signing a long-term contract, which includes

768
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:37,660
an important component of conventional fossil generation, then that I don't believe is a

769
00:59:37,660 --> 00:59:45,260
commercially smart move for us to make. Bloomberg New Energy Finance last week released a very

770
00:59:45,260 --> 00:59:50,880
important set of new findings. They called it a second tipping point in energy generation.

771
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:56,460
The first tipping point, which happened many years ago actually, is when the cost of

772
00:59:57,600 --> 00:59:59,980
decarbonize clean power when you are stuck.

773
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:06,840
Zhang symfys, un fel i'n llweddigdadd. Eüglaud ac bwyneth Chaudol, y fzymerol, famio, fropio, grofful.

774
01:00:07,800 --> 01:00:15,080
Ond y pu dynoeth Maelau, y定 y fforddcadddedd yma 안에addoda yn hwyrddio swampaio rounda un ysa妳ngol hyn o ddim.

775
01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:23,740
1, lai e un hynodddadddddda, stickers o或, roberries ffordddann amold gdal.

776
01:00:23,860 --> 01:00:29,980
1, byd etw yn vurgingborgwyr hynod roges ffordddddidd 1 waun, amso, hiffy, os epat a hynod r

777
01:00:29,980 --> 01:00:37,860
gan defer ff'n hollod bids i'l 5'n rwy ar y ryn o'r ydym yn def'n pandell'n ff'n ydym'n pa'n gwne'n

778
01:00:37,860 --> 01:00:41,680
dewy'n unfeu amigrna i'n roungsu'n yn hynra genesi i'n meddwl dy'r hollon i'n prwy'n

779
01:00:41,680 --> 01:00:45,180
mod ffordd y'n yr'n dwef'n fy'n iawn yn ydechwc o'n dywre'n osf'n dywre'n

780
01:00:46,060 --> 01:00:52,940
Mae'n rwy'n i'n ddechwn i'n gwnead yn y y ff'n象 gud,

781
01:00:52,940 --> 01:00:55,080
chwidd Charlie Frup cynical o ond mwy area ond o ar,

782
01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:59,620
mae yn y cael o ym Stream Young, ddyddau, mae'n pdad yn yna fashion

783
01:00:59,620 --> 01:01:05,500
ddat案 y ddearawryd o gwrimeth eich un leif fod yn i màch

784
01:01:05,500 --> 01:01:09,560
Ydych a th Game Infoffatiofer yn y ditot i degu fill yw fel fy behind�lewlau,

785
01:01:10,700 --> 01:01:12,380
ywín gael fdoticol mydych y kilof 아 Siwk Antwerock, y 14,

786
01:01:12,380 --> 01:01:22,920
S yearna weithu rydych ynnutwrdau a mae fi gwthys dal étio

787
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:26,180
wederrepionedd ywricleau'n o wheya'r i'r hyndym twydd o'r fwythym yn ydym'n i'r년d.

788
01:01:30,080 --> 01:01:34,560
A ydyddr ydymduw o'r dweud ychda'r ddw hwn紹fnydd.atellariad

789
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:35,340
ffritha'r ddw hwny yn ddw gdyddddionileen shouldio i de Prepastor. I ffwritha

790
01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:42,600
'r dda'r ddwyeddod yddddddod y dddoddoddoddoddoddoddoddoddion

791
01:01:42,600 --> 01:01:45,580
wy'n finalm gdau'n zwydodawn'n chi jdwy'n dina, i'n gwneud sydd ynnegol yn ymda'n pys o'n sydd rwyd?

792
01:01:45,580 --> 01:01:53,420
Dwa'r iawn'i dweych, aadwodd yn dynreen ddim yn ymd prithos yma'n bod yngddenau'n

793
01:01:53,420 --> 01:01:54,180
dwd myrwyd yn gyferig yn yma'n gwneud.

794
01:01:55,660 --> 01:01:58,960
Ayd wydio'r dynneudau'n ddim myrwyd yn ymth yn fredddwyds ddwyfydld aadd neu'n

795
01:01:58,960 --> 01:02:07,260
ddwyfydl ynau'r gwneud i'r ddaud, ydda'n ydydda'r ddwyfydl yn dddyd yn

796
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:15,060
Y spyd yn ymfa'n amrlusu, mae'n yma'n amnyddol ymwysol.

797
01:02:15,060 --> 01:02:22,220
I look at a gwaith o fi ymnyddol. Mae'n doedol, mae'nобtrad.

798
01:02:22,820 --> 01:02:27,420
Mae'n amnyddol wna'n dod ymwysol. Mae'n dduch, mae'n ddichau, mae'n iddymod yn ymwysol?

799
01:02:27,420 --> 01:02:27,520
Mae'n ymwysol chi ymwysol i'n ddich.

800
01:02:27,520 --> 01:02:30,940
O'n ddichwyr, mae'n ddich.

801
01:02:30,940 --> 01:02:35,160
Mae'n ddich yn ymwysol iwi, mwyfysol, a'n ddich.

802
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:42,420
i� m'ec, o'n coedd ydym yma Bobol, a'w m'r if yma'u yn'n cyflod, a'r ddei'r yma'r i'n i'n cyflod.

803
01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:55,920
Ydym ydym ydym'r i'r i'r i'n bus gwnaitho, a'r i'r i'n amd o'n eborlwion i'n yn yn postod, a'r i'r i'n eborlwion.

804
01:02:55,920 --> 01:02:59,460
i n byn gwaith, y jwyd ymer â'r fyw'r i'r 90 o'r i'r dwi gan gda'r i'r i'r i'd glwy'rокойnes,

805
01:03:02,020 --> 01:03:10,820
dot fel y rwedd Cymru i'r llwchreffyd unwyd yn ydym yn ygu i'r i'r i'n gwichol ydym yn ydym'r i'r riferwyr.

806
01:03:10,900 --> 01:03:16,860
Dwarf unwyd yn yda'r i'r ammaf.

807
01:03:16,860 --> 01:03:17,700
Oedd yways eithau.

808
01:03:18,660 --> 01:03:21,300
Oedd ymchwit o'r gael eithau.

809
01:03:21,300 --> 01:03:28,080
Mae y i'r sydd yw'r â fyfysdo, yw ydydd si'r hyn o'r fy ffrwyfyr. Mae'r rhawn hynnas yw yw'r ffysdo.

810
01:03:28,820 --> 01:03:31,420
Mae yw'r hynna fel haw gwnaf ddwyfyr.

811
01:03:35,640 --> 01:03:41,480
Ydydydd faithych yn ystwfyddwyfyr, o'r rhwd.

812
01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:42,180
Dyna'r ffyddwyfyddwyfyr, o'r hr rhanfion, o'r hr amlfyddaw, yfyddwyfyr, yw hynnydd yn ffyddwyfyr,

813
01:03:42,180 --> 01:03:46,220
oad ddwyfyr, yw ddim yna'r sylnydd ydd yn ffyddwyfyr, yna'r ffyddwyfyr

814
01:03:46,220 --> 01:03:48,300
o'r y ei'r'r llys euol o'r awr wedi ymthotd yn ymthot.

815
01:03:50,060 --> 01:03:54,600
Mae'r ymthotd yn o'r ridicolai, ydy o'r llys ei'r remarkat.

816
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:58,420
A'rwerthodio, mae'n aifod i'n iln, ddymdства, afallio o'r llys â'r ymthotodio,

817
01:03:59,460 --> 01:04:02,120
o'r te'n ysters всolio, afallio o'r ymthotodio?

818
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:03,500
Mae'r llys afallio?

819
01:04:05,540 --> 01:04:09,000
Mae'r amona, at shouldess ddw'r ymthotodio,

820
01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:10,340
o'r krown yn ysta yn bwythu yn ymthotodio,

821
01:04:10,340 --> 01:04:19,720
Aabsolid ddreidol aishy'n nhw i'w doudw yn ymthaiest ar y sy'n ar y wnaed, LORDau ei'n yw, Eiflch yn ymthai fel y'n

822
01:04:19,720 --> 01:04:24,380
â ddefydol a ffydd, bethyn yn nâwn ar gawbar yn bwysio nydd o'n dal gwysio yn chwy cymd âw'n nidol,

823
01:04:24,380 --> 01:04:28,120
yn ddefyd yn ffyd yn yddefyd yn gwysio yn ddefyd yn richeswm.

824
01:04:28,120 --> 01:04:33,880
o fyn'l yn y ddeenau yn yn prwn gan dres derfod membergu a fysfysd edible.

825
01:04:36,880 --> 01:04:38,380
Seud Jeffs o'n i'n ilw'n中 hynnych fallaitw'n i'l'n phatod yn yenders ydynaed,

826
01:04:38,380 --> 01:04:44,660
yn ydym'n yddio'r i'n oliweddio'n oll, ydym'r i'n bod bryd o'r sy'n ygybario'n

827
01:04:44,660 --> 01:04:45,220
ydymidd yng Nghyl sudd yn y pwrd o'r i'n yma'r rhan, gudola'n gyda'r a phyrl.

828
01:04:50,400 --> 01:04:58,100
Dwy y jynnyd efer ydym bod y gyfr wr i'n eich myrdydd i'r yfr yn ythf fresh.

829
01:04:58,100 --> 01:05:04,220
I bet y eethau fwyr wedd, wwydyn ei synnogawas.

830
01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:07,000
Byddio nrefwyd yn de y gadaethau gwfan eithu a rŷf aedd a'r cdr.

831
01:05:07,900 --> 01:05:12,680
I ddyn ni'n y fwyd yn gwwyd yn jneud ei rwyf fwawn aedu efwrid i rydyn ni'n

832
01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:13,200
ei ddyn ni'n llywch gwyf.

833
01:05:13,600 --> 01:05:15,720
I ddyn ni'n yn y pobl am wryd honny – eithau,

834
01:05:16,200 --> 01:05:18,000
yn y'n ynggenod yma yn rhyfiwn,

835
01:05:19,160 --> 01:05:26,680
ym'r rhaforfd ac y mynd yn bwyd yn y gwyfod yn i'r ddyn ni'n gael

836
01:05:26,680 --> 01:05:27,780
mentradotides.

837
01:05:28,380 --> 01:05:31,580
I think we would be in a really valuable exercise

838
01:05:31,580 --> 01:05:33,720
that the state will pay us for

839
01:05:33,720 --> 01:05:36,060
to do proper state-colder consultation

840
01:05:36,500 --> 01:05:39,400
and to develop an energy plan for ourselves.

841
01:05:40,980 --> 01:05:42,640
So just a couple of things

842
01:05:42,640 --> 01:05:45,500
on the existing contract that we have.

843
01:05:46,660 --> 01:05:49,100
I think that the way we use our plant

844
01:05:49,100 --> 01:05:50,840
in Wineka, it's too limited.

845
01:05:51,660 --> 01:05:53,700
You know, that MDR that we have.

846
01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:55,980
We so seldom use that plant,

847
01:05:55,980 --> 01:06:01,000
Rhyg ro'n yn ymthigiawn ei'n i'n bribd i mae'n o'n ffys, fy'n fi'n i'n gondol am d gallmd o trwy?

848
01:06:01,800 --> 01:06:07,820
L enchdiol ond ac synny'n gondol, a ym wanig oigo, mae'n ffys eu bribd i'n delledor.

849
01:06:08,640 --> 01:06:12,340
A ffys'n ddd a ac i'n ddd o'n bribd wrth yn gondol.

850
01:06:12,420 --> 01:06:18,480
A ffys'n dddychdydd mwy'n ffys Frau Wraith Ysnesfys,

851
01:06:18,480 --> 01:06:23,800
yn ydych chi ffys sy'n obroedd'n ymthigiawn oedd yn ffys eu bribd i'n ymthigiawn oedd yn dddol.

852
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:26,420
wrwyffy, mae bobhyd sy'n ofur.

853
01:06:27,370 --> 01:06:28,020
Mae'n morwydd ymnud ar y rwyffy...

854
01:06:28,020 --> 01:06:30,460
Mae nyn bwyfdi yn'n gsmweud i'n morwydd?

855
01:06:30,460 --> 01:06:33,020
Mae'n morwydd ywrwrdyw.

856
01:06:33,020 --> 01:06:33,540
Mae'n earlew, maenthau yw, am ymwynnydd i'n rwyffy,

857
01:06:33,540 --> 01:06:36,200
ac yn wyb�auiadod Phwy provinces yn factory'n gwnech o'wn,

858
01:06:39,220 --> 01:06:40,560
apwyин o'n morwydd a chiweddauedddr ymwynnydd.

859
01:06:40,560 --> 01:06:40,800
Mae'n gsofer, mwynnydd.

860
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:53,280
Yw'n ar yl'n enneud i'n yang o'n ar

861
01:06:53,280 --> 01:07:00,940
mae'n yn y bydio ddwybod, yn yw'n si'n bod yw'n i Wedd, ydfwyneth yn y'n i'n lawedd yn ydych gan defo a'n pysguid yn y'n oed,

862
01:07:00,940 --> 01:07:17,000
yn yweddwn yn hynryd slaf ynwynnych. Mae'n nd ylwedd o'n ytw weif yn ywydw i'n eich. Mae'n ydych yvd yn ywyd yn ywydw i'n nag i'n aconychіda yn ychwydw i'r yn ywydw am hynnych.

863
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:20,080
y mwyn chi yn fusofryn rewi

864
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:37,800
To charge them, we plug into coal power, and that's really letting down our citizens in this village.

865
01:07:38,500 --> 01:07:51,480
So, I have to say a little bit about coal power, and I know that we hear a lot about coal power, and I know that we all have an aspiration to do better for the environment.

866
01:07:51,480 --> 01:08:00,280
but it must merit mention, because that plant, the prairie state plant, is such an

867
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:09,020
egregious emitter of greenhouse gases. It's so inexcusable, it is the biggest power

868
01:08:09,020 --> 01:08:15,040
generation emitter of greenhouse gases that has been built in the 21st century in

869
01:08:15,040 --> 01:08:21,380
America. So, you know, when we talk about that plant and the 13 million tons a year

870
01:08:21,380 --> 01:08:28,680
CO2 that it emits. What we have to understand is that in Illinois, already without us doing

871
01:08:28,680 --> 01:08:36,400
any work for our energy plan, we've got 53% decarbonized power already from nuclear production,

872
01:08:37,120 --> 01:08:45,660
we've got 10% decarbonized power from wind, and we've got 3% from solar, so that's 66% today

873
01:08:45,660 --> 01:08:52,700
of carbon-free power. What do we do with IMA? We run as fast as our legs can carry us from the exit

874
01:08:52,700 --> 01:08:58,680
from all that clean power and we go and sign up with a coal power provider. And that plant in

875
01:08:58,680 --> 01:09:15,640
Paris State is high sulfur coal, it's high sulfur bitterness coal. And in 2035 we will have a new

876
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:21,620
environmental regulations. So for any of us who believe that when we repay the bonds

877
01:09:22,620 --> 01:09:30,160
on back to IMA that we're going to get some kind of drop in our power prices with that

878
01:09:30,160 --> 01:09:36,900
coal plant in the mix, I really need to buy you lunch and tell you that to decarbonise that coal

879
01:09:36,900 --> 01:09:43,780
plant it's going to cost about $4 billion worth of capex and the plant itself only costs $4.4

880
01:09:43,780 --> 01:09:49,840
billion. So we're going to have to write an enormous check to catch a carbon from that plant.

881
01:09:50,420 --> 01:09:54,560
And I've been working with CCSVUs. It actually doesn't work on coal plants. It's a bit

882
01:09:54,560 --> 01:10:00,340
of a myth. So it's not really a very good option. What we'll then have to be done is the plant

883
01:10:00,340 --> 01:10:06,480
will have to be closed or a good proportion of the plant will have to be closed. There's coal ash.

884
01:10:06,700 --> 01:10:10,540
There's people in that local community with asthma. There's litigation.

885
01:10:13,280 --> 01:10:13,760
There's

886
01:10:13,760 --> 01:10:17,640
that will become material and we're going to have to pay.

887
01:10:18,400 --> 01:10:20,860
And we pay a lot in this village for property tax.

888
01:10:21,380 --> 01:10:23,960
And we don't want to have to have a millstone like that,

889
01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:27,920
hang it around on next to clean up that coal plump in 2035

890
01:10:28,440 --> 01:10:31,360
when it has to come offline. There's real risks.

891
01:10:31,900 --> 01:10:37,420
But I think the most material risk that I want to express to you,

892
01:10:37,580 --> 01:10:40,240
when it comes to signing this contract extension,

893
01:10:40,240 --> 01:10:49,520
is about the fact that right now our peer communities in Northern Illinois, Naperville and

894
01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:58,940
St Charles, they haven't signed. So think about, we're at this fork in the road. We can take

895
01:10:58,940 --> 01:11:06,260
the $200,000, we can take in the fantastic intellectual capital that we have in this community.

896
01:11:06,260 --> 01:11:10,080
We can work with those other two peer communities in Northern Illinois.

897
01:11:10,700 --> 01:11:14,560
And we can talk to a broader range of power markets ourselves directly.

898
01:11:15,140 --> 01:11:19,260
We can build an energy plan and the state will write us a check for doing that.

899
01:11:19,940 --> 01:11:21,740
That's a no regrets option.

900
01:11:22,520 --> 01:11:23,740
Absolutely no regrets whatsoever.

901
01:11:24,480 --> 01:11:30,980
Or we could get ourselves in an environment where we rush to sign this IMEA contract.

902
01:11:32,000 --> 01:11:38,360
And what happens if, since Charles and Naperville don't do it because they get a better deal for cleaner power?

903
01:11:39,080 --> 01:11:44,680
We're going to have serious regrets over that and there's nothing we'll be able to do about it, absolutely nothing.

904
01:11:45,420 --> 01:11:54,740
And then we could get to 2035 and they could have been significant cost reductions as a result of renewable power cost reductions.

905
01:11:54,740 --> 01:12:05,480
And we could be in a situation where we've got massive liabilities to have to deal with with that darn cold plant instead of taking advantage of those renewable opportunities.

906
01:12:06,300 --> 01:12:09,740
That's a big regrets, big risk, way to go.

907
01:12:10,520 --> 01:12:14,860
So I recommend to you. I know I'm close to the end of my 15 minutes.

908
01:12:14,860 --> 01:12:24,880
I would recommend to you that we just think about taking a step back from all of this.

909
01:12:25,100 --> 01:12:27,160
We don't have to sign this extension.

910
01:12:27,860 --> 01:12:34,420
We can build ourselves a comprehensive energy plan and we can choose green power because

911
01:12:34,420 --> 01:12:40,040
at the end of the day when it comes to environment, it's actually not what we say, it's what

912
01:12:40,040 --> 01:12:40,420
we do.

913
01:12:40,600 --> 01:12:42,700
We have to do right.

914
01:12:42,700 --> 01:12:45,760
we have to do in consistent with our values.

915
01:12:46,460 --> 01:12:47,280
Thank you very much.

916
01:12:48,060 --> 01:12:48,500
Thank you, ladies.

917
01:12:53,160 --> 01:12:53,160
So,

918
01:12:57,140 --> 01:12:58,720
thank you, ladies, for both comments.

919
01:12:59,320 --> 01:12:59,880
Very, very helpful.

920
01:13:00,780 --> 01:13:03,240
So, that was actually the start of our public comment.

921
01:13:03,840 --> 01:13:05,620
Can I see it from Michelle of hands?

922
01:13:05,660 --> 01:13:06,840
Who else would like to speak?

923
01:13:07,320 --> 01:13:09,520
If you know duplicative comments,

924
01:13:09,640 --> 01:13:11,260
I mean, what I think we heard it all.

925
01:13:11,880 --> 01:13:17,540
So, I see one, two, three, four, five or six.

926
01:13:17,940 --> 01:13:30,360
Why don't we start over on this side, no one in the front row of the second row, come on up, introduce yourself, and we're going to, we're going to, we're going to adhere to this three-minute public comment, limit.

927
01:13:31,720 --> 01:13:34,380
Hi, I'm John Anderson, actually living will met.

928
01:13:36,320 --> 01:13:41,060
And I work on energy, I'm also executive manager of Intelligent Generation.

929
01:13:41,060 --> 01:13:43,000
I think Mark, you probably know my colleagues.

930
01:13:43,280 --> 01:13:47,540
We optimize solar and energy storage at

931
01:13:47,540 --> 01:13:50,060
App Electronics, for example, number of industrials.

932
01:13:51,200 --> 01:13:53,800
We're just about to sign a project with a major utility

933
01:13:53,800 --> 01:13:56,000
in a city, in a major city.

934
01:13:56,880 --> 01:14:00,760
So my point is we're optimizing both retail and wholesale power markets.

935
01:14:00,900 --> 01:14:02,560
The market is evolving rapidly.

936
01:14:03,540 --> 01:14:06,540
So we are managing a double microgrid at App.

937
01:14:06,900 --> 01:14:09,220
Not too dissimilar from what you can do at your water plant

938
01:14:09,220 --> 01:14:10,800
with your generator there, right?

939
01:14:11,700 --> 01:14:14,140
And both generate frequency regulation revenues,

940
01:14:14,840 --> 01:14:18,640
where members of PGM, but also a shave your peaks on capacity

941
01:14:19,880 --> 01:14:23,720
and transmission, and generate real good returns.

942
01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:27,980
I wanted to add to this gentleman's comment that,

943
01:14:28,100 --> 01:14:30,520
I mean, I started working in 79 in the North Shore.

944
01:14:30,660 --> 01:14:31,420
It's a long time.

945
01:14:31,860 --> 01:14:33,840
I know a lot of leaders up and down in the shore,

946
01:14:34,020 --> 01:14:38,020
and I don't know many communities that are doing what you're all doing.

947
01:14:38,020 --> 01:14:40,180
I really don't understand, it's kind of a legacy

948
01:14:40,180 --> 01:14:41,460
that you've got your own utility.

949
01:14:42,540 --> 01:14:44,840
I know you call about your peers being naperville

950
01:14:44,840 --> 01:14:46,780
and what have you, but I mean,

951
01:14:46,840 --> 01:14:53,260
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, they're doing just fine

952
01:14:53,260 --> 01:14:57,000
by my buying market electricity.

953
01:14:57,560 --> 01:14:59,540
And so as you look at your alternatives,

954
01:15:01,220 --> 01:15:05,200
I'm encouraged to just stand really leader to talk to our standing leader Lucy, who actually will

955
01:15:05,200 --> 01:15:11,000
met, buys our energy. She's negotiating with an energy broker right now. I think since he's

956
01:15:11,000 --> 01:15:15,100
aware that it provides it, but it's a very dynamic market. And these prices going on, I mean,

957
01:15:15,220 --> 01:15:20,240
12 years have been working at Intelligent Generation, I'll just conclude by saying, I also found it a

958
01:15:20,240 --> 01:15:29,980
company called Green Leaf Advisors and an nonprofit Green Leaf Communities, done with, done

959
01:15:29,980 --> 01:15:35,860
and energy and on climate. Why am I killing myself these days? It's a, it's a, it's a

960
01:15:35,860 --> 01:15:39,780
state of relief. It's to protect all of us and our grandchildren. I know more than I

961
01:15:39,780 --> 01:15:45,240
want to know about climate change. I cannot imagine committing a call. It is not competitive.

962
01:15:45,860 --> 01:15:49,020
We're in the biggest transition that's ever happened in this world, in the biggest market in

963
01:15:49,020 --> 01:15:53,400
the world. And I got a lot smarter colleagues working with me and for me than me. They should

964
01:15:53,400 --> 01:15:57,660
be coming here. I've offered your staff to bring in my team and do a power plan to show you what you

965
01:15:57,660 --> 01:16:05,880
to do. So I encourage you to invite others in to look at a broad-based alternative as you go for it.

966
01:16:06,080 --> 01:16:09,620
I'm sorry to get a little emotional, but this stop is 24-7 for those of us that are working

967
01:16:09,620 --> 01:16:15,420
to build a healthy and sustainable world. And I welcome you to look at GreenEath advisors, GreenEath communities, and intelligent generation.

968
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:20,480
Any that people I work with will be here to help you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

969
01:16:20,840 --> 01:16:21,820
Who else on the side?

970
01:16:25,810 --> 01:16:26,690
Thank you.

971
01:16:26,770 --> 01:16:27,610
My name is Ted Belard.

972
01:16:27,750 --> 01:16:31,810
I'm from Naperville and I'm one of the co-chairs of Nest.

973
01:16:32,410 --> 01:16:35,230
Naperville environment and sustainability task force.

974
01:16:35,830 --> 01:16:36,810
Can y'all hear me okay?

975
01:16:37,570 --> 01:16:37,850
All right.

976
01:16:39,330 --> 01:16:42,290
I'd like to speak directly to the point director Nari,

977
01:16:42,870 --> 01:16:47,070
raised about Naperville's public utility advisory board,

978
01:16:47,470 --> 01:16:49,490
voting to recommend that Naperville sign

979
01:16:49,830 --> 01:16:51,770
the current contract extension.

980
01:16:54,730 --> 01:17:06,290
I was part of that process but let me take a step back just a few minutes to recount a longer

981
01:17:06,290 --> 01:17:06,750
timeline.

982
01:17:07,070 --> 01:17:13,990
It was on June 4th of 2024 that the city council for the first time were outspoken in

983
01:17:13,990 --> 01:17:16,070
opposition to signing the contract extension.

984
01:17:16,070 --> 01:17:24,230
At that time, we believe the City Council vote was to be 5-4 against signing the contract.

985
01:17:24,690 --> 01:17:33,250
In early January 2025, Mayor Worley, called me and shared with me, he too was against

986
01:17:33,250 --> 01:17:33,810
the extension.

987
01:17:34,790 --> 01:17:46,050
His view was that this was a bad contract, thought that local generation that you have here in

988
01:17:46,050 --> 01:17:55,890
Since then, the City Council, Naperville, has been and stayed six-three against signing the contract extension.

989
01:17:56,090 --> 01:18:05,990
I can tell you, regardless of whether the open season is extended by the IMEA Board of Directors, Naperville will not sign this contract extension.

990
01:18:11,380 --> 01:18:19,680
On February 27th, the PUAB held its first meeting by inviting the IMEA to present to them.

991
01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:27,360
A week later, they invited customized electricity solutions, CES as their name, I'm pretty

992
01:18:27,360 --> 01:18:29,740
sure I'm translating that correctly.

993
01:18:30,140 --> 01:18:36,440
They presented their draft presentation and midway through Chairman Halkius from the public

994
01:18:36,440 --> 01:18:43,320
utility advisory board, which has jurisdiction over electricity, utility recommendations,

995
01:18:43,680 --> 01:18:49,720
and water utility recommendations, asked me if Nest would be willing to present at the

996
01:18:49,720 --> 01:18:54,800
next PUAB meeting. And that's sort of course.

997
01:18:58,940 --> 01:19:04,500
March 6th, CES presented their draft presentation,

998
01:19:04,500 --> 01:19:08,100
and Nest was to present on April 8th.

999
01:19:08,480 --> 01:19:19,140
On April 3rd, we learned that Mark Prut and Chris Townsend were also to be presenting, and that the

1000
01:19:19,140 --> 01:19:21,500
PUAB would be making their recommendation.

1001
01:19:22,020 --> 01:19:31,220
That was a surprise to me in that shortly after Nest was going to present, they were to make

1002
01:19:31,220 --> 01:19:35,440
presentation, it looked to me like they'd already made up their minds.

1003
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:45,800
The vote at the conclusion was 43 in support of the contract extension.

1004
01:19:46,560 --> 01:19:53,960
The fellow that had water utility experience and to the newly hired board members voted

1005
01:19:53,960 --> 01:19:59,820
Yes, two folks with direct and current energy experience voted no.

1006
01:20:00,840 --> 01:20:05,200
We knew from the beginning that the City Council was not interested.

1007
01:20:05,740 --> 01:20:11,380
We've been told by the mayor, by City Council members, and by director growth that there

1008
01:20:11,380 --> 01:20:13,400
was no intention of bringing this to a vote.

1009
01:20:13,800 --> 01:20:17,660
So we wondered what was this exercise all about?

1010
01:20:18,060 --> 01:20:19,540
OK, thank you very much for your comment.

1011
01:20:20,180 --> 01:20:23,420
Anyone else on the side of the, okay, from the back row?

1012
01:20:24,680 --> 01:20:25,700
Oh, I know that person.

1013
01:20:26,560 --> 01:20:26,880
I was.

1014
01:20:29,540 --> 01:20:29,980
Hi, sorry.

1015
01:20:30,300 --> 01:20:33,260
I actually want to make a comment that I meant to make it the outside of the meeting,

1016
01:20:33,580 --> 01:20:33,820
apologies.

1017
01:20:34,260 --> 01:20:35,460
Honestly, I want to say welcome.

1018
01:20:36,580 --> 01:20:38,760
It's a little better late than never, but welcome President.

1019
01:20:40,000 --> 01:20:41,520
Honestly, welcome to the new council.

1020
01:20:41,700 --> 01:20:42,840
Welcome to the new president.

1021
01:20:43,280 --> 01:20:46,140
And I'm a little bit sorry that this is the big issue that you have to lead off with.

1022
01:20:46,360 --> 01:20:47,180
I don't envy you that.

1023
01:20:47,280 --> 01:20:49,800
Honestly, thank you for your work and thank you for your service.

1024
01:20:49,800 --> 01:20:57,180
Thank you. Honestly. Thank you Liz. We appreciate that about so no one else on my right. How about on the left side here?

1025
01:20:58,380 --> 01:21:01,580
Okay, coming back for another bite at the apple on Ted?

1026
01:21:03,300 --> 01:21:03,700
Okay

1027
01:21:07,070 --> 01:21:08,230
I'll get to the microphone

1028
01:21:10,390 --> 01:21:15,610
So first I have to say something. It's gonna be shocking. You know, I actually found this like I really good the discussion

1029
01:21:15,610 --> 01:21:20,190
You know, I didn't seem one side it seemed like both sides. It was a

1030
01:21:20,190 --> 01:21:24,190
Well, a pleasure to be here for this.

1031
01:21:24,970 --> 01:21:27,130
And I think the one thing that I would say is I

1032
01:21:27,130 --> 01:21:30,390
would think that the council should listen to the thing

1033
01:21:30,390 --> 01:21:32,330
where both sides agree.

1034
01:21:32,690 --> 01:21:36,870
And that is that it is way too early to bind ourselves

1035
01:21:36,870 --> 01:21:38,990
to a contract a decade from now.

1036
01:21:39,710 --> 01:21:42,250
Seems like that was the consistent messes on both sides.

1037
01:21:42,650 --> 01:21:43,970
But the thing that I wanted to mention

1038
01:21:43,970 --> 01:21:44,910
is what I found fascinating.

1039
01:21:45,590 --> 01:21:47,970
Was in the presentation, we talked about trying

1040
01:21:47,970 --> 01:21:54,590
encourage more rooftop residential solar production, I find that fascinating, right? Because

1041
01:21:54,590 --> 01:22:02,250
back in 2007 or so, the now infamous 261 shared an owner, well, not the current, you know,

1042
01:22:02,290 --> 01:22:06,850
fire was at this council, and you can look at the meeting minutes and he said, you know,

1043
01:22:06,910 --> 01:22:11,990
because hey, I have solar panels, why can't I get net metering in Winnatka? Like, comet is being

1044
01:22:11,990 --> 01:22:15,370
forced to do, and, you know, the council was a good, and I'm going to do that, you know, that's

1045
01:22:15,370 --> 01:22:22,210
benefit to you. So then the next solar installation in Winnatka, you know around 2012, came

1046
01:22:22,210 --> 01:22:25,930
up and said the same thing. So it's like if you guys want to encourage people to do this,

1047
01:22:26,130 --> 01:22:29,970
maybe we should offer net metering. And of course, the counts as a well. No, we're not going to

1048
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:56,100
That's a benefit to you. And then around 2017, Brian Keys, did this great analysis from the data that someone provided him that showed that the person that was producing solar power was actually getting paid less in credits than the village was saving by having a slightly lower peak hour demand over the year.

1049
01:22:56,100 --> 01:23:04,140
And so then the council got together and they said, well, hey, why don't we just do this like kind of weird wholesale retail mix thing over the year?

1050
01:23:04,600 --> 01:23:12,440
And I would say at this point, if you guys really want to encourage people to put up solar, then you should do net metering.

1051
01:23:13,020 --> 01:23:21,800
There's the sole smart stuff. I don't know what that means anything, but financially the people here aren't idiots, and they understand that if they have net metering,

1052
01:23:21,800 --> 01:23:25,560
the payback on their installations is much quicker.

1053
01:23:26,180 --> 01:23:28,260
The benefits occur to them much faster,

1054
01:23:29,180 --> 01:23:31,960
and the added cost to the village is negligible

1055
01:23:31,960 --> 01:23:36,780
when we look at what the benefits to us

1056
01:23:36,780 --> 01:23:38,300
and to the rest of the planet are.

1057
01:23:39,560 --> 01:23:40,140
Thank you.

1058
01:23:40,180 --> 01:23:41,500
Thank you for that comment, Patrick.

1059
01:23:47,800 --> 01:23:48,200
Thank you.

1060
01:23:48,420 --> 01:23:49,340
Thanks for doing this tonight.

1061
01:23:49,480 --> 01:23:50,960
Thanks for taking all the time that you have

1062
01:23:50,960 --> 01:23:52,420
over the last year or two years

1063
01:23:52,420 --> 01:23:54,220
to think through a really complicated issue.

1064
01:23:54,280 --> 01:23:56,140
And I apologize for adding to the time

1065
01:23:56,140 --> 01:24:00,420
that late that a really nice job summarizing a lot of the topics that the Weneco future energy

1066
01:24:00,420 --> 01:24:03,980
coalition have talked about. But one point that I did want to make that I didn't hear

1067
01:24:03,980 --> 01:24:09,180
made tonight was something the President Prince actually brought up a couple of times. And that's

1068
01:24:09,180 --> 01:24:15,080
the idea that we've talked about in Council before that our decision to purchase power through

1069
01:24:15,080 --> 01:24:19,720
I'm Mia does not actually mean that it's our responsibility that we're paying for coal.

1070
01:24:20,280 --> 01:24:25,120
And I just think that that is that's just not true. And it's not true in a deep ethical sense.

1071
01:24:25,120 --> 01:24:31,760
And I think we can wrestle with what that means that we are paying someone to go and burn dinosaurs and destroy the planet.

1072
01:24:32,900 --> 01:24:37,260
But when we do that, I think you can weigh how you measure that against your other priorities.

1073
01:24:37,440 --> 01:24:39,140
One way that you do it is you internalize the cost.

1074
01:24:39,580 --> 01:24:45,240
And you say, okay, what is it worth to us that we are twice, two and a half times as carbon intensive as we'll met?

1075
01:24:45,480 --> 01:24:46,820
And you could put a price on that.

1076
01:24:47,060 --> 01:24:51,160
And so when we talk about the things that we might do and renegotiated contract like by Rex,

1077
01:24:51,160 --> 01:25:00,080
or do other things in sustainability in Wineca to try and get to a net zero despite spending 80% of our electric budget on coal.

1078
01:25:00,580 --> 01:25:07,840
I think we got to take into consideration the real value of that coal to the Wineca resident in an internalized cost of carbon.

1079
01:25:08,400 --> 01:25:10,080
And I think you'll find that it's really expensive.

1080
01:25:10,520 --> 01:25:12,100
So I just hope that you wrestle with that.

1081
01:25:12,160 --> 01:25:17,540
I hope that you don't take that argument at face value that it's not a responsibility because I think it a deep sense that it is.

1082
01:25:18,460 --> 01:25:19,120
Thank you.

1083
01:25:19,120 --> 01:25:26,340
We were kind of okay, anyone else on this side, anyone else over here, we have someone right in the middle, come on up.

1084
01:25:28,100 --> 01:25:28,620
I'm sure we're excited.

1085
01:25:28,820 --> 01:25:29,200
I was on here.

1086
01:25:30,220 --> 01:25:34,780
Bob's Avers 25 year resident, a bit of an expert in this space as well.

1087
01:25:34,960 --> 01:25:39,140
I've started private equity funds consulting firms and trading firm on energy.

1088
01:25:40,080 --> 01:25:45,180
A few observations, I guess, first of all, yeah, you can't prove this contract.

1089
01:25:45,580 --> 01:25:48,960
It's just not the kind of contract anybody should approve in this type of environment.

1090
01:25:49,580 --> 01:25:54,560
There's a lot of things going on with technology, innovation, a lot of all the changes that are going on that were very well described.

1091
01:25:55,180 --> 01:26:02,640
Our real forces, why would anybody execute a contract this far in advance when we can get back in, you know, with two or three years is more than enough time.

1092
01:26:03,180 --> 01:26:09,540
So it's kind of a non-starter and people mentioned it's like buying a car, in listening to this conversation, it's like buying a time share.

1093
01:26:09,960 --> 01:26:11,760
We're being told there's no more beach front available.

1094
01:26:12,220 --> 01:26:16,320
We don't want to be a home builder, you have to learn how to be a realtor if you're going to go outside to this command.

1095
01:26:16,320 --> 01:26:19,900
This is not a real contract, so you can't do it from that perspective.

1096
01:26:21,100 --> 01:26:25,760
The more serious thing I want to bring up is we're not talking about resilience and reliability.

1097
01:26:26,680 --> 01:26:30,600
And we do a lot of work with the grid. We help redesign parts of the grid. These are real challenges.

1098
01:26:31,040 --> 01:26:36,380
And I think the primary goal of village council is for the safety and security of our community.

1099
01:26:37,800 --> 01:26:42,020
And the credit of previous councils of the power plant is a real asset.

1100
01:26:42,020 --> 01:26:44,340
And we have these things people have talked about it.

1101
01:26:44,600 --> 01:26:46,980
It's a real asset for us, a village yards, or a real asset.

1102
01:26:47,600 --> 01:26:49,980
All of our powers on this side of the substation that's

1103
01:26:49,980 --> 01:26:52,700
set on, basically, on, in Northfield.

1104
01:26:53,240 --> 01:26:54,780
We have to protect that part of it.

1105
01:26:54,780 --> 01:26:58,080
And so we can put more, you know, we're giving IMEA part of our

1106
01:26:58,080 --> 01:27:01,260
proceeds from having resources at our plant.

1107
01:27:01,860 --> 01:27:02,880
Let's put more in there.

1108
01:27:03,180 --> 01:27:04,040
Cost is pretty low.

1109
01:27:04,080 --> 01:27:05,700
Our credits better than IMEA credit.

1110
01:27:06,340 --> 01:27:08,300
We can finance these things very cheaply.

1111
01:27:08,580 --> 01:27:09,440
Batteries are there.

1112
01:27:09,660 --> 01:27:10,720
And if these things are all proven,

1113
01:27:10,720 --> 01:27:15,340
Let's look at the Texas grid this Thursday, see what happens, look at the Spanish grid last week.

1114
01:27:16,400 --> 01:27:21,220
So we have the potential to actually make this a green and very secure community.

1115
01:27:21,880 --> 01:27:26,260
So there's no reason to go to emphasizing this again.

1116
01:27:26,780 --> 01:27:30,980
29 of the 32 members are in a different power market than us.

1117
01:27:31,500 --> 01:27:35,520
They're not going to vote for MISO, which costs are going up faster than PJM.

1118
01:27:35,580 --> 01:27:37,040
They're going to vote in those interests.

1119
01:27:37,040 --> 01:27:41,520
We have our own power plant and we're in PGA, it's an entirely different proposition.

1120
01:27:42,680 --> 01:27:48,260
So in the 90s, the 2000s, the goal was, everyone gets together to build a power plant,

1121
01:27:48,360 --> 01:27:50,160
coal, gas, whatever it does to save money.

1122
01:27:51,080 --> 01:27:52,480
That's a 20-year-old model.

1123
01:27:52,620 --> 01:27:57,740
What people are doing now is distributed energy, distributed portfolios, microgrids, resilient

1124
01:27:57,740 --> 01:28:00,420
grids, because capacity prices are going out.

1125
01:28:00,560 --> 01:28:02,560
We can make money on our own capacity.

1126
01:28:03,020 --> 01:28:07,320
So, those things are real, and unfortunately, I mean I was probably a great organization, probably

1127
01:28:07,320 --> 01:28:12,100
a great group of people, great idea at the time, but the current model, they missed all

1128
01:28:12,100 --> 01:28:13,180
the technology waves.

1129
01:28:13,860 --> 01:28:14,860
They missed clean coal.

1130
01:28:14,900 --> 01:28:17,560
This was marketed to us as a clean coal investment.

1131
01:28:18,120 --> 01:28:21,540
Never became cleaning when a billion dollars over budget, which is why we have the debt there.

1132
01:28:21,920 --> 01:28:22,780
They missed batteries.

1133
01:28:22,960 --> 01:28:26,960
They're talking about 2030 for battery storage, it's saving the Texas and California and

1134
01:28:26,960 --> 01:28:28,100
other grids right now.

1135
01:28:28,320 --> 01:28:30,060
We're going to be 70 years later, that technology.

1136
01:28:30,060 --> 01:28:41,940
We have metering technology. We're using it late. So I would like to say we should go with them, but at the same time the technology has passed them by they haven't delivered and demonstrated they even know how to take advantage of the technologies.

1137
01:28:42,300 --> 01:28:52,960
The world has been distributed generation. We have our own sites. We have our own credit. And the part of the contract that limits us to 10% is almost a death sentence for the reliability of this village.

1138
01:28:53,580 --> 01:28:57,940
You really just can't be. So that's my three minutes. Good luck with the complex decisions here.

1139
01:28:57,940 --> 01:29:04,740
Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else they would like to speak on the side here?

1140
01:29:15,520 --> 01:29:21,220
Hello, my name is Mary Thwhite. Some of you may recognize me as this is my third time speaking about this issue.

1141
01:29:21,900 --> 01:29:27,220
I'm sitting here for my third time to reiterate the fact that my generation cares about the environment.

1142
01:29:27,720 --> 01:29:32,000
And we care about the well-being of Weneka and the future and what it has to become.

1143
01:29:32,620 --> 01:29:37,360
I am telling you that the decision that you are making will send a message and people will not

1144
01:29:37,360 --> 01:29:45,580
Not notice what you guys decide this decision will sign a message to all the children of Oneka if you sign this contract

1145
01:29:45,580 --> 01:29:50,460
You are showing kids that there is hope that they can do things that they can make change

1146
01:29:50,460 --> 01:29:56,300
You are setting the example and you're creating the path for what they can do when what they can become

1147
01:29:56,300 --> 01:29:59,920
If you don't like sign this contract you're just showing that you're

1148
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:06,920
Not open to taking risks and solving the insoluble. Kids are taught to solve the insoluble. But if

1149
01:30:06,920 --> 01:30:11,220
you're the adults and the examples and the leaders aren't actually solving the insoluble,

1150
01:30:11,980 --> 01:30:18,120
they aren't going to know how to do it. If this contract doesn't get signed, we're not

1151
01:30:18,120 --> 01:30:22,860
got at least needs to show that there's need to, there's some change for the environment. If this

1152
01:30:22,860 --> 01:30:29,360
doesn't get signed, we need to think of other ways, like solar panels on schools and more open and

1153
01:30:29,360 --> 01:30:35,300
talk about the environment because if there's no change, the generation below us below you guys

1154
01:30:35,300 --> 01:30:40,460
won't know how to make a change themselves. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

1155
01:30:42,260 --> 01:30:48,540
I think that may have been anyone else would like to come and, okay, okay, in the back here.

1156
01:30:52,240 --> 01:30:57,560
I don't know this person. Hi, my name is Charlotte Harper. I wanted to come up here as

1157
01:30:57,560 --> 01:31:03,720
another young person who feels strongly that we need to be considering this through an environmental

1158
01:31:03,720 --> 01:31:10,300
perspective and through a very long-term perspective. I would be 45 by this time that this

1159
01:31:10,300 --> 01:31:12,740
contract would need to be renewed once again.

1160
01:31:15,620 --> 01:31:18,120
I think that's worth noting because when considering

1161
01:31:18,120 --> 01:31:23,860
an agreement that would function that far into the future we have to consider its impacts that far

1162
01:31:23,860 --> 01:31:29,720
into the future. That means considering how the decisions we make now will infect the environment

1163
01:31:29,720 --> 01:31:36,240
in a changing world of renewable energies and massive impacts of climate change. And it

1164
01:31:36,240 --> 01:31:42,100
means considering the changing and economic world of power. And the fact that we shouldn't

1165
01:31:42,100 --> 01:31:48,420
be brushing a decision 10 years in advance that's going to affect my life until I'm 45,

1166
01:31:48,420 --> 01:31:57,940
this planet until in 45. And also might not be economically advantageous for us in 10 years or in 30 years.

1167
01:31:58,540 --> 01:32:07,220
So this is my plea to you to not rush this decision to consider it and to think about my generation and the planet that we will inherit as you think about these options.

1168
01:32:07,820 --> 01:32:17,900
Thank you, Scarlet. Thank you. Okay, with that, I think we will close public comment and

1169
01:32:17,900 --> 01:32:25,580
bring it back up to our table here for trustees to ask questions of Nick or Mr. Prohitz or

1170
01:32:25,580 --> 01:32:30,580
Mr. Raymond, if you're willing to take any questions, if people have questions, why don't

1171
01:32:30,580 --> 01:32:35,540
we start, Bridget, do you have anything? You're listening. Yeah, no, I was listening. This

1172
01:32:35,540 --> 01:32:37,140
This was very interesting on all parts.

1173
01:32:38,320 --> 01:32:44,080
One of the questions I had when I was reading the materials earlier is am I reading it correctly

1174
01:32:44,080 --> 01:32:48,900
that PGM buys power from IMEA or PGM?

1175
01:32:51,140 --> 01:32:57,180
Yeah, so the power from Prairie State and Tribal County and the wind generation assets,

1176
01:32:57,360 --> 01:33:02,700
everything in the IMEA portfolio is sold into the PGM market through transmission ties.

1177
01:33:02,700 --> 01:33:14,960
So, if the analogy has been made before about the PGM market being a pool, you're swimming pool, full of electrons, some of those electrons are coming from IMEAS, that's so.

1178
01:33:15,380 --> 01:33:21,360
If you, there are members who are buying PGM, market mix that mix of electrons, some of those are IMEA electrons.

1179
01:33:22,840 --> 01:33:28,940
And is it divided out when the energy is resold, like where it comes from or not?

1180
01:33:28,940 --> 01:33:37,180
When people are by, this is very complicated that people have spent their lives learning and we're all just learning, but

1181
01:33:38,320 --> 01:33:38,880
PGM

1182
01:33:40,220 --> 01:33:50,120
It has a bunch of energy that it purchases and sells and our people picking and choosing within PGM where the energy comes from

1183
01:33:50,600 --> 01:33:58,060
Are they saying I do not want I'm part of PJ. I'm I'm a member of PJ. I'm but I don't want any of the energy that you get

1184
01:33:58,060 --> 01:34:00,700
From, say, I am E.A.

1185
01:34:01,400 --> 01:34:06,680
At the resource level, I can defer to Mark, and I, how exactly that's decisions made.

1186
01:34:07,680 --> 01:34:10,920
Answers know, P.J.A.M. is a marketplace.

1187
01:34:11,840 --> 01:34:18,240
So just for clarification, P.J.A.M. uses a series of auctions that I'd use price to identify

1188
01:34:18,240 --> 01:34:22,100
which power plants operate on an hour by hour basis.

1189
01:34:23,000 --> 01:34:25,180
So selection is made on the basis of price.

1190
01:34:25,180 --> 01:34:31,280
So to be able to go into PJM and say, I'll be a PJM member, but I don't want to buy it from that guy.

1191
01:34:32,420 --> 01:34:39,180
That's going to be very difficult because of the co-mingling of the electrons and the dispatch order.

1192
01:34:40,460 --> 01:34:46,000
The way things are usually handled that if you have a preferred resource is that you, as a buyer,

1193
01:34:46,680 --> 01:34:51,780
would purchase from the PJM grid at the hourly rate, just take whatever comes,

1194
01:34:51,780 --> 01:34:59,040
And you would have an offsetting transaction, a power purchase agreement, which Nick mentioned earlier, with a specific project.

1195
01:35:00,220 --> 01:35:11,480
And in essence, you're from a transactional standpoint, you're swapping out what you're purchasing from PJM with your agreement with a wind farm or a solar farm.

1196
01:35:12,180 --> 01:35:16,960
So it's, I know it's a little confusing, but that's the steps that have to happen because again,

1197
01:35:16,960 --> 01:35:23,640
PJM is the marketplace that has responsibility for establishing reliability, so they don't exercise

1198
01:35:23,640 --> 01:35:29,240
a preference for resource outside of that option process. I hope that helped.

1199
01:35:30,500 --> 01:35:35,440
Kind of. Okay, good. Kirk, anything? I'll come back. Scott.

1200
01:35:37,220 --> 01:35:40,920
I've got a few questions both for Nick and for Mark.

1201
01:35:42,260 --> 01:35:46,020
First of all, on the power marketer side.

1202
01:35:46,140 --> 01:35:49,540
So my understanding is communities like Wilmet,

1203
01:35:50,040 --> 01:35:56,880
Kenilworth, around us, they get their power from combat, right?

1204
01:35:58,800 --> 01:36:05,680
Are there any communities that you are familiar with in the area that

1205
01:36:05,680 --> 01:36:09,640
currently use power marketers that are out kind of on their own doing

1206
01:36:09,640 --> 01:36:20,720
their, you know, representing themselves in PGM or our part of some service bureau that represents

1207
01:36:20,720 --> 01:36:21,900
them in PGM.

1208
01:36:22,440 --> 01:36:26,200
Anybody our size, I mean, Naperville is a totally different size, right?

1209
01:36:26,280 --> 01:36:28,960
They're much, much bigger than us.

1210
01:36:29,680 --> 01:36:31,300
Anybody our size?

1211
01:36:32,580 --> 01:36:38,640
On the community level, no, I'm not aware of any municipalities operating in that manner.

1212
01:36:38,640 --> 01:36:47,500
The closest example I could think of, though, might be University of Chicago, which uses a service bureau to operate in the wholesale market.

1213
01:36:51,750 --> 01:36:53,470
Tavia, the municipal utility?

1214
01:36:54,370 --> 01:37:01,070
Believe the municipal utility in Batavia is part of a broader organization, are they part of NIMPA?

1215
01:37:02,820 --> 01:37:06,160
PJ, I'm the communities that this lot was.

1216
01:37:06,620 --> 01:37:08,300
Yeah, that's great. Thank you.

1217
01:37:08,420 --> 01:37:09,460
What is there, there are a number?

1218
01:37:09,700 --> 01:37:12,140
Are there any that are our size?

1219
01:37:13,100 --> 01:37:19,300
of our size that are as individuals know that are buying through power markers.

1220
01:37:19,860 --> 01:37:27,920
No, most utilities, especially the list that was just provided, especially those in New York.

1221
01:37:27,920 --> 01:37:29,200
I'm sorry, in New Jersey.

1222
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:46,740
So, they all have joined together and they purchased through a pool of purchases, which is fairly common. Again, because a lot of the PGM activity is fixed cost. So they're spreading that fixed cost over a larger pool of purchases. So it's fairly common.

1223
01:37:46,740 --> 01:37:47,280
Okay.

1224
01:37:49,780 --> 01:37:51,260
Mark, let me just stick with you for a second.

1225
01:37:51,460 --> 01:37:57,680
You mentioned something on your last slide in terms of determining what our mission is.

1226
01:37:58,200 --> 01:38:01,760
You use the term, what is the mission of our field?

1227
01:38:01,940 --> 01:38:09,380
Do you elaborate on that in terms of what do you mean by what is our mission when it comes to dealing with PGM?

1228
01:38:10,180 --> 01:38:10,260
Right.

1229
01:38:12,420 --> 01:38:15,260
It's cliche, but form does follow function.

1230
01:38:17,280 --> 01:38:26,140
And what I view any entity that is looking to operate in PGM or ERCOT or any of the other

1231
01:38:26,140 --> 01:38:31,340
similar organizations is they're going to have to go through a series of decisions likely

1232
01:38:31,340 --> 01:38:33,020
cost versus benefit decisions.

1233
01:38:33,460 --> 01:38:39,040
Is this worth doing to bring on in-house regulatory attorney or should we contract it out?

1234
01:38:39,440 --> 01:38:41,080
Should we have one or two analysts?

1235
01:38:41,360 --> 01:38:42,420
What should they be looking at?

1236
01:38:42,420 --> 01:38:46,040
should we monetize our power plant or not?

1237
01:38:46,440 --> 01:38:48,260
These are all decisions that are really

1238
01:38:48,260 --> 01:38:51,080
going to be driven by, what are you trying to accomplish?

1239
01:38:51,440 --> 01:38:55,100
If it's economic goals, then that's really clear, right?

1240
01:38:55,100 --> 01:38:57,960
And you're really well aligned with how the PGM rules

1241
01:38:57,960 --> 01:39:00,580
operate because, as we talked about,

1242
01:39:00,780 --> 01:39:02,720
they use price to establish reliability.

1243
01:39:03,300 --> 01:39:05,860
So it's a very clear line that says,

1244
01:39:05,860 --> 01:39:07,600
if we do something that enhances reliability,

1245
01:39:07,640 --> 01:39:10,040
there's an economic benefit, right?

1246
01:39:10,040 --> 01:39:24,760
If you're going to operate for a purpose other than economics, which is fine, it's just that you might find that a values-based approach might not always align with how the market operates.

1247
01:39:25,160 --> 01:39:30,480
And you're going to have to invest a little bit more to structure your transactions so that they meet your goals.

1248
01:39:31,120 --> 01:39:36,300
Which happens all the time, I deal with a lot of organizations that want to purchase renewables.

1249
01:39:36,300 --> 01:39:41,980
Well, renewables aren't instantly available through PGM, so they operate through virtual power

1250
01:39:41,980 --> 01:39:44,280
purchase agreements or power purchase agreements.

1251
01:39:44,820 --> 01:39:50,360
It's just another level of effort that's necessary to meet a non-economic goal.

1252
01:39:50,900 --> 01:39:55,620
So again, I'm not diminishing non-economic goals at all.

1253
01:39:55,700 --> 01:40:01,960
I'm just saying they're different and entering into this arena just being eyes open and

1254
01:40:01,960 --> 01:40:07,780
understanding how PGM operates and it's drivers. It's reliability. They use price to establish

1255
01:40:07,780 --> 01:40:12,900
participation and they impose penalties when you don't perform. So if you can operate

1256
01:40:12,900 --> 01:40:18,990
with your values and still align with how that market operates, I think you can do well.

1257
01:40:20,020 --> 01:40:22,780
Okay. I hope that was responsive. Yeah.

1258
01:40:24,560 --> 01:40:31,880
Nick, let me ask you a few questions. Just trying to understand our flexibility within IMEA.

1259
01:40:31,960 --> 01:40:42,880
So even, so we buy wholesale power transmitted to us from them at a price, we can then price that anyway we want in our village.

1260
01:40:43,480 --> 01:40:54,860
We could offer, you know, we could charge people electricity at two cents a kilowatt hour between the hours of midnight and 4am.

1261
01:40:56,820 --> 01:40:59,720
So, you know, how much flexibility do we have?

1262
01:40:59,720 --> 01:41:03,720
So the village has full control over a making.

1263
01:41:04,160 --> 01:41:05,960
That's a local control issue.

1264
01:41:06,780 --> 01:41:08,980
Part of our exercise every year with the budget is to do a

1265
01:41:08,980 --> 01:41:12,820
comprehensive analysis and bring it to you the council to make sure

1266
01:41:12,820 --> 01:41:14,420
that we're being fiscally responsible.

1267
01:41:15,180 --> 01:41:16,400
We have adequate reserves.

1268
01:41:17,180 --> 01:41:19,200
We're meeting our revenue requirement to make improvements

1269
01:41:19,200 --> 01:41:22,600
cover our fixed costs and injecting capital back into the system.

1270
01:41:22,680 --> 01:41:26,620
As long as we meet that requirement, how we parse it out is up to us.

1271
01:41:26,660 --> 01:41:29,580
Do we have the capability or will we have the capability

1272
01:41:29,580 --> 01:41:33,440
to do that? Are you talking about time of use rates?

1273
01:41:33,440 --> 01:41:38,520
Time of use rates. That's something that up until this year we could not do because we do not have

1274
01:41:39,600 --> 01:41:48,080
the new smart metering. With meters that are smart and at dumb then you can know when the energy is being used and that allows you to

1275
01:41:48,080 --> 01:41:53,120
time of time of use. So there could be a case to do a time of use rate tariff with the new data.

1276
01:41:53,120 --> 01:42:05,300
And then is there anything that is preventing us today in the IMEA contract from building a solar

1277
01:42:05,300 --> 01:42:07,760
farm on the landfill site?

1278
01:42:10,080 --> 01:42:14,220
If we wanted to say, you know what? Our residents want to go green,

1279
01:42:14,600 --> 01:42:22,080
we are going to allocate $2 million we want to build it this year. I'm not sure that there's anything

1280
01:42:22,080 --> 01:42:26,020
currently that would prevent us from doing up behind the meter solar installation.

1281
01:42:26,820 --> 01:42:32,460
Naper, or I'm sorry, a tree here is doing a one megawatt installation on there when

1282
01:42:32,460 --> 01:42:33,320
I can't bus.

1283
01:42:33,720 --> 01:42:38,620
And we could put in, we could put in battery storage if we wanted to up there also.

1284
01:42:39,800 --> 01:42:43,700
Their battery storage, I'd have to make sure there's no issues in the contract with that,

1285
01:42:43,860 --> 01:42:45,740
but their renewables, I think, is more of a clear cut.

1286
01:42:45,740 --> 01:42:51,160
But what about providing grants to residents to put in solar power?

1287
01:42:52,400 --> 01:43:00,280
So the issue was brought up about heat pumps, EV incentives, I think what you're speaking to gets along those same lines.

1288
01:43:00,360 --> 01:43:01,900
That's all the local control issue.

1289
01:43:02,480 --> 01:43:04,140
So we decide what to do with our revenue.

1290
01:43:04,880 --> 01:43:11,320
So if the village council provides direction to the utility to create a program, a grant program, then we could do that.

1291
01:43:11,660 --> 01:43:14,040
So it's set aside to revenue and expenses to cover that.

1292
01:43:14,040 --> 01:43:23,000
So to go back to a point that life made, could we go to the state today and say,

1293
01:43:23,520 --> 01:43:27,540
we want to create our own green energy power today.

1294
01:43:28,060 --> 01:43:29,660
We're not going to wait for 2035.

1295
01:43:30,520 --> 01:43:32,140
We want to do it now.

1296
01:43:32,860 --> 01:43:37,060
We, as residents, feel a value to green energy.

1297
01:43:37,400 --> 01:43:40,460
We are going to decide we're going to allocate certain dollars.

1298
01:43:40,460 --> 01:43:51,620
And we're going to start reducing our load on IMEA, whether it's, you know, three megawatts or up to 35, you know,

1299
01:43:52,620 --> 01:43:54,580
if we had enough space, we could take it all off.

1300
01:43:54,720 --> 01:43:59,780
There's nothing really in the contract that prevents us from making that decision today.

1301
01:44:00,420 --> 01:44:02,620
Right, you do have to just our budget.

1302
01:44:02,760 --> 01:44:06,820
It's our budget and the tax burden that people are,

1303
01:44:06,820 --> 01:44:08,840
Great burden that I'm willing to bear.

1304
01:44:09,080 --> 01:44:14,900
IMEA does offer energy efficiency programs to us that we pay into so they come to us

1305
01:44:14,900 --> 01:44:19,040
at no cost, but if the village wanted to pursue other incentive programs that would

1306
01:44:19,040 --> 01:44:23,060
come out of our rate base or out of other funding sources, grant funding, we could certainly

1307
01:44:23,060 --> 01:44:23,640
do that.

1308
01:44:25,720 --> 01:44:25,900
Okay.

1309
01:44:26,140 --> 01:44:26,340
Rob?

1310
01:44:30,320 --> 01:44:30,800
Well,

1311
01:44:32,940 --> 01:44:36,440
this is, you know, I appreciate the passion on this side.

1312
01:44:36,980 --> 01:44:37,720
I get it at home.

1313
01:44:37,720 --> 01:44:42,440
two daughters that live in this community with four grandchildren and they're young and I feel very

1314
01:44:43,520 --> 01:44:51,220
responsible for their future as well. It's on the other side as trustees we have to weigh this and say we have, you know,

1315
01:44:51,360 --> 01:44:56,500
14,000 residents are so in this community that we are also responsible for and

1316
01:44:59,020 --> 01:44:59,960
I'm we're going to go back

1317
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:05,140
The numbers, I think Nick and the team has done a pretty good job on locking down the numbers

1318
01:45:05,140 --> 01:45:12,540
about what the credits are when I hear you know. One side says, our 25% credit, that's going

1319
01:45:12,540 --> 01:45:19,800
to be due to this village in 10 years, is first of all on the other, but I'm hearing on the

1320
01:45:19,800 --> 01:45:28,100
other side. I'm seeing the real raises when you said PG&H had a PGAM had a 800% increase. I'm

1321
01:45:28,100 --> 01:45:32,740
at the Commed additional writers on the bottom of that bill.

1322
01:45:33,720 --> 01:45:36,980
I just need to know the reality of what this really means.

1323
01:45:38,680 --> 01:45:40,360
You know, we spent a lot of time in this village

1324
01:45:41,680 --> 01:45:42,780
for all the residents.

1325
01:45:42,980 --> 01:45:46,080
When we talk about, you know, the nine, eight or nine years,

1326
01:45:46,300 --> 01:45:49,940
we held any increases of the tax,

1327
01:45:50,140 --> 01:45:51,060
let me in check.

1328
01:45:52,080 --> 01:45:54,140
And they do care about the dollars.

1329
01:45:55,900 --> 01:45:59,700
I am absolutely passionate about it, but I do not agree with the comment.

1330
01:46:00,340 --> 01:46:01,140
It's not what we pay.

1331
01:46:01,260 --> 01:46:01,800
It's what we do.

1332
01:46:01,920 --> 01:46:03,320
It's what we just said on the other side.

1333
01:46:03,800 --> 01:46:09,840
I think that is speaking for himself now, for the 14,000 members of this village.

1334
01:46:10,700 --> 01:46:15,740
I think it's a balance, and whatever we can do to try and move this along is what Scott was

1335
01:46:15,740 --> 01:46:16,300
talking about.

1336
01:46:16,340 --> 01:46:20,440
To green, I am what we're all, I think, 100 percent in favor of doing that.

1337
01:46:20,500 --> 01:46:21,760
We'd like to do it fast.

1338
01:46:21,760 --> 01:46:28,610
I do think there's a risk because I've been talking to a lot of people that we know it's coming

1339
01:46:28,610 --> 01:46:35,130
up with Amazon and Meta and others, we know that kind of power that's going to be sucked

1340
01:46:35,130 --> 01:46:43,670
out of this going to be required for AI, it's going to be massive and there is a risk.

1341
01:46:43,950 --> 01:46:50,330
We have to manage as trustees risk which is in 10 years and we're not to go back to you

1342
01:46:50,330 --> 01:46:54,990
And this discussion, if, you know, and it is a hammer, I don't love that hammer at all.

1343
01:46:55,090 --> 01:46:59,330
When you say to IMEA, if we're not going to do it, but we, if nothing materializes

1344
01:46:59,330 --> 01:47:03,770
in ten years, we'll be back and hopefully you'll give us the same rates as not going to happen.

1345
01:47:04,990 --> 01:47:06,810
And I'll ask your thoughts on that.

1346
01:47:07,090 --> 01:47:07,750
What's the risk?

1347
01:47:08,870 --> 01:47:08,930
Right.

1348
01:47:08,930 --> 01:47:15,090
So you're asking the risk to not sign, to not sign, and then go back when nothing materializes

1349
01:47:15,090 --> 01:47:17,890
that will keep us from brownouts or other problems.

1350
01:47:17,930 --> 01:47:18,290
Right.

1351
01:47:18,290 --> 01:47:26,210
So the precedences, if a contract is not signed during an open contract period and a member

1352
01:47:26,210 --> 01:47:33,290
comes back at a later date, if a resource needs to be allocated to accommodate that member,

1353
01:47:34,070 --> 01:47:38,250
then that member would pay a premium and that premium is given back to the other membership

1354
01:47:38,920 --> 01:47:39,650
as a credit.

1355
01:47:39,650 --> 01:47:47,590
So, the major precedence is Naiproville's entry into IMEA, the resource that was available

1356
01:47:47,590 --> 01:47:50,770
at the time to accommodate that load was per state.

1357
01:47:51,670 --> 01:47:56,850
So, entering Naiproville entering IMEA required entering to per state, which Naiproville

1358
01:47:56,850 --> 01:48:01,670
paid a premium for and the other members, when I concluded, got a credit for on their bill.

1359
01:48:02,330 --> 01:48:08,530
So, the cost of coming late to the game is really dependent on what the market looks like

1360
01:48:08,530 --> 01:48:14,430
at the time. So if we come back and say it's 80% this year and next year it's a thousand

1361
01:48:14,430 --> 01:48:22,290
percent, you know, overblown you a little bit, but we don't know. So whatever the cost is

1362
01:48:22,290 --> 01:48:26,770
of power at the time when you snap the line and we come back, that's the potential premium

1363
01:48:26,770 --> 01:48:28,510
that we would be paying to come back.

1364
01:48:29,610 --> 01:48:35,870
Yeah, I, you know, we asked you to go back and look at the numbers and lock down apples to

1365
01:48:35,870 --> 01:48:37,570
And that's what we're trying to understand.

1366
01:48:38,410 --> 01:48:39,150
They brought some points.

1367
01:48:39,270 --> 01:48:41,650
Of course, I want to double check and see what the reality is.

1368
01:48:42,710 --> 01:48:44,830
They're interpretation of numbers versus ours.

1369
01:48:45,110 --> 01:48:48,070
I need that, you know, facts are important here.

1370
01:48:48,710 --> 01:48:51,050
Obviously, from a directional standpoint, of course,

1371
01:48:51,210 --> 01:48:54,010
we're trying to push this green as fast as we can.

1372
01:48:55,670 --> 01:48:58,650
But kind of knowing what the real facts are in this case,

1373
01:48:58,670 --> 01:49:01,550
are really important, because they're way apart right now.

1374
01:49:02,910 --> 01:49:03,050
Tina?

1375
01:49:03,810 --> 01:49:03,990
Anything?

1376
01:49:06,120 --> 01:49:16,640
Yeah, first of all, I want to thank all those in the audience who have come tonight, all those who have written very extensive and helpful letters to us.

1377
01:49:16,780 --> 01:49:18,620
We've read them all.

1378
01:49:19,600 --> 01:49:21,820
And thank you to Mark and to Nick.

1379
01:49:22,500 --> 01:49:35,500
You know, we have been studying this a while, and I think we are always learning more and gaining more information by the very talented expertise in the audience.

1380
01:49:35,500 --> 01:49:42,320
as well as at the table. So thank you. I guess what I'm struggling, I think at a much macro

1381
01:49:42,320 --> 01:49:47,640
level at this moment because the future is so unknown. We don't know the demands. We've

1382
01:49:48,600 --> 01:49:54,180
got decreasing, decreasing supply, increasing demand. We know that's going to be our future.

1383
01:49:54,440 --> 01:49:59,720
So it's hard to predict what to do. Big picture, though, what I'm trying to understand is

1384
01:49:59,720 --> 01:50:05,080
when people are saying what we should be going out and talking to constellation or other power

1385
01:50:05,080 --> 01:50:07,220
marketers were alternative,

1386
01:50:09,300 --> 01:50:12,820
leaving IMEA, not signing the contract, which I understand, you

1387
01:50:12,820 --> 01:50:15,040
know it presents a lot of risks all around.

1388
01:50:17,440 --> 01:50:22,340
If you enter into an agreement to find your source

1389
01:50:22,340 --> 01:50:30,260
of power from a different entity than IMEA, IMEA, IMEA, is there really any guarantee that

1390
01:50:30,260 --> 01:50:40,020
will be completely green energy sources, or is the only coal-fire plant prairie state? Isn't the

1391
01:50:40,020 --> 01:50:47,680
whole PGM source unless you're buying your own solar field, which, by the way, I think IMIA is

1392
01:50:47,680 --> 01:50:49,820
doing or not buying, but building, right?

1393
01:50:52,240 --> 01:50:57,260
How do we know that if we go at alone, which I think is

1394
01:50:57,260 --> 01:51:01,940
good option. It sounds like we've got a lot of support in the room for that. How do we know

1395
01:51:01,940 --> 01:51:08,000
it's going to be non-fossil fuel? And it could be nuclear, which it sounds like generally

1396
01:51:08,000 --> 01:51:12,440
people are thinking it's greener option, but that has environmental consequences as well.

1397
01:51:13,060 --> 01:51:19,500
So, how do we know that P, you know, an alternative is going to be green? I mean, I think the market

1398
01:51:19,500 --> 01:51:24,400
is going to ultimately make that decision or their regulations are going to shut down coal

1399
01:51:24,400 --> 01:51:29,140
But I'm just kind of curious what your thoughts are and that because that's what I'm struggling with.

1400
01:51:30,300 --> 01:51:32,340
I'll kind of give my two cents now that Mark Trip in.

1401
01:51:33,080 --> 01:51:34,340
So we kind of touched on this before.

1402
01:51:35,160 --> 01:51:36,900
Do you know if the electrons are green?

1403
01:51:37,300 --> 01:51:40,820
You probably have no way of knowing that because you're buying everything off the PGM marketplace.

1404
01:51:41,460 --> 01:51:48,920
But to Mark's point, there are ways more of a book transaction where you can do PPAs and your rights to that energy.

1405
01:51:49,200 --> 01:51:53,560
Those electrons in that pool, you can decide if the sources you want there.

1406
01:51:53,560 --> 01:51:55,900
but the electrons themselves really have no way of

1407
01:51:55,900 --> 01:51:56,620
care and team that.

1408
01:51:57,040 --> 01:52:01,700
But there are mechanisms you can do in order to carve out

1409
01:52:01,700 --> 01:52:02,880
certain parts of your portfolio.

1410
01:52:04,200 --> 01:52:11,340
So maybe another way to ask this question is how much of the

1411
01:52:11,340 --> 01:52:17,240
generation within PJM now is fossil fuel-based?

1412
01:52:19,750 --> 01:52:20,710
Give me a moment.

1413
01:52:21,870 --> 01:52:23,490
Sure, Mark, and find it on their website.

1414
01:52:24,990 --> 01:52:29,970
And so I just want to make it clear because I've heard this before and I just want to make sure.

1415
01:52:30,000 --> 01:52:39,780
I'm actually understanding it clearly. The reason IMEA is in Prairie State was because Naperville joined the party late, right?

1416
01:52:40,360 --> 01:52:57,580
At the time, when Naperville wanted to join IMEA, the renewable market was not what it is today, and the only capacity, which remember we talked about, accredited capacity before, the only capacity available to accommodate that load was to go into Prairie State.

1417
01:52:57,580 --> 01:53:21,480
Okay. So what happens if Naperville, unless did they resign? No. So if Naperville doesn't sign an extension contract with IMEA, doesn't that open up a potential for IMEA to transition away from Prairie State faster because they don't need to fill that capacity?

1418
01:53:21,480 --> 01:53:26,520
Like, what would happen if Naperville doesn't extend?

1419
01:53:29,380 --> 01:53:30,080
Right, so.

1420
01:53:30,100 --> 01:53:34,780
Has there been any discussion at IMEA about what happens if that occurs?

1421
01:53:35,780 --> 01:53:38,360
If Naperville weren't not to resign, that's hypothetical.

1422
01:53:40,300 --> 01:53:47,760
So, free the collective to go transition faster, probably other projects that they've got.

1423
01:53:48,060 --> 01:53:51,720
Right, so I would say if Naperville were not to resign,

1424
01:53:51,720 --> 01:53:55,860
It would reduce the load requirements of the agency by about a third,

1425
01:53:56,880 --> 01:53:58,220
about a third of the agency.

1426
01:53:59,480 --> 01:54:01,460
So what that would mean is after 2035,

1427
01:54:01,720 --> 01:54:05,180
which is when the debt service paid off for our own generation assets,

1428
01:54:06,180 --> 01:54:10,020
IMEA can make a decision at that point,

1429
01:54:10,340 --> 01:54:12,340
whether what to do with that excess capacity,

1430
01:54:13,780 --> 01:54:18,040
the coal plants can technically run until the siege of mandate by state law.

1431
01:54:18,640 --> 01:54:21,220
There's no reason why they would run beyond state law.

1432
01:54:21,220 --> 01:54:34,000
There's no intention to violate state law in terms of their mandated shutdowns, so in that time period between 2035 because they pervile still going to get energy up until September 2035 no matter what.

1433
01:54:34,300 --> 01:54:41,940
So between then and when peri state is mandated to close, that'll be a transitional period, we can decide what to do with that access capacity.

1434
01:54:43,570 --> 01:54:50,730
Okay, and the other thing I wanted to understand a little bit more, and I apologize if it was already discussed.

1435
01:54:51,350 --> 01:55:07,290
But this concept that even when, I mean, eventually Prairie State and all fossil fuel plants will probably be decommissioned at some point either through the cost of extraction and operation or through regulatory control or combination of the boat, right?

1436
01:55:07,290 --> 01:55:15,210
So we know that that's what all the, you know, really smart people have written about.

1437
01:55:16,050 --> 01:55:24,550
Will we have ongoing liability whether we access, exit, peri state in 235 or at some point

1438
01:55:24,550 --> 01:55:29,150
in the future, is that a real concern that we're going to have environmental liability to

1439
01:55:29,150 --> 01:55:29,650
the village?

1440
01:55:29,650 --> 01:55:38,810
Right, so the decommissioning costs that were brought up before during public comment, I mean,

1441
01:55:38,930 --> 01:55:40,290
is already planning for those.

1442
01:55:40,550 --> 01:55:45,590
They have projections on what potential, you know, shuttering of the plant is going to cost

1443
01:55:45,590 --> 01:55:47,650
in 2038 and 2040.

1444
01:55:48,670 --> 01:55:50,830
Excuse me, I don't know, they have 2043, 2044.

1445
01:55:51,470 --> 01:55:54,290
They have an estimate for what those costs are going to be.

1446
01:55:54,530 --> 01:55:57,650
And we're already paying into that as a member now.

1447
01:55:57,650 --> 01:55:59,490
So that's already baked into our rate structure.

1448
01:55:59,950 --> 01:56:02,550
They're already setting aside essentially an escrow account

1449
01:56:02,550 --> 01:56:04,190
for the decommissioning.

1450
01:56:04,250 --> 01:56:06,230
And everyone in the agency is already paying towards that.

1451
01:56:06,370 --> 01:56:09,030
So that it won't be a surprise when the time comes.

1452
01:56:09,570 --> 01:56:12,030
And so I'm sorry that's proportional to our ownership.

1453
01:56:12,410 --> 01:56:14,310
Correct. It's a pro-rata share, right?

1454
01:56:14,970 --> 01:56:18,610
Pro-rata share of the agency and then pro-rata of IMEA's ownership

1455
01:56:18,610 --> 01:56:20,850
in Prairie State, which is 15%.

1456
01:56:20,850 --> 01:56:24,350
Oh, and so if we're setting aside money for decommissioning,

1457
01:56:24,350 --> 01:56:31,050
that also set aside as the lawyer and me for potential externalities or other, you know,

1458
01:56:31,230 --> 01:56:38,290
potential non-related just to shut down and decommissioning those other third party liabilities.

1459
01:56:39,130 --> 01:56:45,330
I would have to inquire with IMEA's corporate counsel on what exactly the funding mechanism

1460
01:56:45,330 --> 01:56:47,610
is there for those externalities.

1461
01:56:47,790 --> 01:56:47,930
Okay.

1462
01:56:48,250 --> 01:56:48,730
Thank you.

1463
01:56:48,910 --> 01:56:50,290
Those are all my questions right now.

1464
01:56:50,290 --> 01:56:50,530
Okay.

1465
01:56:50,530 --> 01:56:50,770
Thank you.

1466
01:56:51,570 --> 01:56:51,890
Sure.

1467
01:56:52,690 --> 01:56:55,110
I'm going to echo some of the other comments just for the community.

1468
01:56:55,310 --> 01:56:57,070
Thank you all for being here.

1469
01:56:57,070 --> 01:56:59,990
It means a lot to us that you are all here with us.

1470
01:57:00,330 --> 01:57:10,430
Your voices do matter, everyone of you, and it's well-received by the trustees to hear

1471
01:57:10,430 --> 01:57:12,830
what the community has to say and what you think.

1472
01:57:12,930 --> 01:57:19,050
So thank you all for being here, and please continue to show up and voice your concerns and

1473
01:57:19,050 --> 01:57:19,550
your positions.

1474
01:57:19,550 --> 01:57:22,410
It means a lot, and it helps us with our decision-making.

1475
01:57:24,050 --> 01:57:27,370
A couple of things I just want to cover, and a lot of this may be a repeat,

1476
01:57:27,610 --> 01:57:32,270
but maybe starting at a really high level and doing a little piggyback,

1477
01:57:32,590 --> 01:57:35,230
some of the things that Tina just commented about.

1478
01:57:35,750 --> 01:57:45,890
When we're looking at IMEA, specifically in comparing their resources to what's happening right now with the demand out there,

1479
01:57:45,890 --> 01:57:47,870
because of data centers, or the increased demand

1480
01:57:47,870 --> 01:57:49,090
for just generally electricity.

1481
01:57:49,970 --> 01:57:53,490
If things continue to go, hey, why are with demand?

1482
01:57:55,030 --> 01:57:57,170
With IMEA's resources are we protected?

1483
01:57:57,430 --> 01:58:01,350
Do we have enough resources to serve all of the members

1484
01:58:01,350 --> 01:58:03,850
in IMEA for the long haul?

1485
01:58:05,510 --> 01:58:10,450
Yes, so IMEA, because we are not deregulated,

1486
01:58:10,590 --> 01:58:12,470
we can own generation assets through,

1487
01:58:12,470 --> 01:58:15,330
so through a combination of the owned fossil fuel

1488
01:58:15,330 --> 01:58:20,030
renewable generation assets and other hedges in the marketplace, we're

1489
01:58:20,030 --> 01:58:24,210
expected to just feel minimal impacts in the near term from those

1490
01:58:24,210 --> 01:58:29,030
increases. Like I mentioned, there's only about 10% of IMEA's power is on

1491
01:58:29,030 --> 01:58:32,330
the open market. The rest of it is covered through own assets in

1492
01:58:32,330 --> 01:58:38,510
generation. So if a member of IMEA wanted to build a data center, are there

1493
01:58:38,510 --> 01:58:43,910
rules in the contract that they have to follow in terms of this, hey, we're going to

1494
01:58:43,910 --> 01:58:46,570
the data center down state Illinois, and it's a member community.

1495
01:58:47,210 --> 01:58:51,130
Yeah, there's rules in place to make sure that it's not

1496
01:58:51,130 --> 01:58:53,910
adversely affected the member and the agency as a whole.

1497
01:58:54,690 --> 01:59:00,230
And just on the flip side, if IMEA or a member wanted to contribute

1498
01:59:00,230 --> 01:59:04,470
by generating more, whatever, come up with a new type of renewable plant,

1499
01:59:05,370 --> 01:59:07,470
that could be in the purview of IMEA.

1500
01:59:08,450 --> 01:59:19,350
We could decide to, or IMEI could decide to build a new, some sort of, you know, energy producing power plant to add to capacity.

1501
01:59:20,150 --> 01:59:22,410
Absolutely, and they're going to have to do that.

1502
01:59:22,510 --> 01:59:25,930
Because we know when the thermal resources are going to be forced to retire.

1503
01:59:26,610 --> 01:59:31,110
So in the next, let's say, five to ten years, we're already going to be planning for that.

1504
01:59:31,110 --> 01:59:34,870
Is that going to look like something that IMEI builds and owns?

1505
01:59:34,870 --> 01:59:36,650
Or is it something like a PPA?

1506
01:59:37,030 --> 01:59:39,210
We're participating like the B. Hallow Solar Project.

1507
01:59:39,730 --> 01:59:40,910
We own a small piece of that.

1508
01:59:41,010 --> 01:59:42,210
It's a much larger project.

1509
01:59:42,610 --> 01:59:44,430
We just have rights to a small piece of it.

1510
01:59:44,830 --> 01:59:46,290
So I mean, he's already going to start planning

1511
01:59:46,850 --> 01:59:49,910
for how to transition away from those thermal resources

1512
01:59:49,910 --> 01:59:52,550
to serve the needs of the members.

1513
01:59:53,130 --> 01:59:55,250
Not necessarily increased capacity to sell

1514
01:59:55,250 --> 01:59:56,170
out into the marketplace.

1515
01:59:57,350 --> 01:59:57,830
They need it.

1516
01:59:58,010 --> 01:59:59,870
As a P.J. and participating member, they're required.

1517
01:59:59,870 --> 01:59:59,970
You

1518
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:03,160
Have 100, what's the percentage?

1519
02:00:04,840 --> 02:00:11,240
Well, the belt and suspenders? Yes. They like to see 15% excess capacity. So we have to need 100 megawatts. You should

1520
02:00:11,240 --> 02:00:18,300
be able to show evidence of 115. Okay. So taking a step back, talking a little bit about education

1521
02:00:18,300 --> 02:00:24,760
on power plants. We've heard that a lot of coal power plants have shut down or gone out of business.

1522
02:00:24,760 --> 02:00:28,460
I mean, what's the cost-banner?

1523
02:00:28,540 --> 02:00:29,420
Why is that happening?

1524
02:00:29,660 --> 02:00:33,180
It's just because people are wanting to move away from coal.

1525
02:00:33,680 --> 02:00:36,060
It's not economically as feasible.

1526
02:00:36,640 --> 02:00:37,580
It's cost too much.

1527
02:00:37,820 --> 02:00:40,220
What are the reasons why coal is going away

1528
02:00:40,840 --> 02:00:42,820
or why these plants are shutting down?

1529
02:00:44,440 --> 02:00:47,840
I'll give my two cents and I'll let the energy expert weigh in.

1530
02:00:49,020 --> 02:00:52,420
I'd say in the recent past, it was because of competition with natural gas.

1531
02:00:52,420 --> 02:00:57,860
So, when there was a boon in natural gas, again, power is bit in, it's a market transaction.

1532
02:00:58,480 --> 02:01:04,060
So, it's the same reason that nuclear generators have to be subsidized because they

1533
02:01:04,060 --> 02:01:06,660
could not compete against natural gas.

1534
02:01:07,000 --> 02:01:12,340
This cost was driven down so low that they could not compete on an auction basis.

1535
02:01:13,840 --> 02:01:16,780
So, coal plants were shuttered because of their inability to compete.

1536
02:01:18,600 --> 02:01:19,480
That's absolutely correct.

1537
02:01:19,480 --> 02:01:23,740
And we see that fuel-switching happening in different parts of the country in the southeast

1538
02:01:23,740 --> 02:01:29,920
almost monthly when we see the natural gas price go down, they burn more natural gas for fuel,

1539
02:01:30,280 --> 02:01:34,800
natural gas price goes up, they convert over to use their gas, and they're coal plants.

1540
02:01:35,300 --> 02:01:40,260
The other issue is that a lot of the coal plants in the past were built by and operated

1541
02:01:40,260 --> 02:01:47,040
by utilities and had after 30 years plus been fully depreciated.

1542
02:01:47,040 --> 02:01:52,680
So, the way utility earns money is by having appreciable assets, part of their rate base.

1543
02:01:53,140 --> 02:01:57,200
So, if the asset is fully depreciated, it's not as attractive as a new resource.

1544
02:01:57,720 --> 02:02:01,660
So, that's why a lot of utilities have built natural gas plants. They're relatively inexpensive to build,

1545
02:02:02,380 --> 02:02:07,220
and then they can build up their depreciation accounts and get their cost recovery on that as well.

1546
02:02:07,740 --> 02:02:11,160
I'm not knowing what the future holds, I don't know, we're totally just guessing here.

1547
02:02:11,160 --> 02:02:15,700
could there be a scenario where IMEA determines that running per

1548
02:02:15,700 --> 02:02:19,000
state costs more than it's worth to keep it through its

1549
02:02:19,000 --> 02:02:24,600
extended life? Is it 2045? I mean I know we're just

1550
02:02:24,600 --> 02:02:28,320
I'm just speculating here but could there be a scenario where

1551
02:02:28,320 --> 02:02:32,060
the current plan isn't economically feasible?

1552
02:02:33,180 --> 02:02:37,580
Right and I think I touched on this when I mentioned that again IMEA is a non-profit entity

1553
02:02:37,580 --> 02:02:43,360
serving the 32 member communities, so if there is another economical, more economical solution

1554
02:02:45,020 --> 02:02:52,240
that would make us move away from Paris State faster than the membership ourselves included

1555
02:02:52,240 --> 02:02:59,780
as board members would push IMEA in that direction. Correct. And it was touched on when

1556
02:02:59,780 --> 02:03:05,460
you were asking questions, so just to repeat right now, Naperville hasn't signed on or have

1557
02:03:05,460 --> 02:03:07,900
they made a decision to not sign on.

1558
02:03:09,330 --> 02:03:10,750
They have not made a decision, correct?

1559
02:03:11,490 --> 02:03:15,690
And they're one third of the total whatever capacity

1560
02:03:15,690 --> 02:03:17,830
or utilization that I'm yet, correct?

1561
02:03:18,490 --> 02:03:23,370
And from Prairie State, what percentage of that

1562
02:03:23,370 --> 02:03:26,710
is sold out to the open market versus use by its members?

1563
02:03:27,770 --> 02:03:28,810
You know that?

1564
02:03:29,030 --> 02:03:30,730
I'd have to find the exact breakdown.

1565
02:03:31,570 --> 02:03:36,230
So I'm EA's 15% Prairie State, NIMPA, which serves

1566
02:03:36,230 --> 02:03:44,650
Betavia, which was mentioned before in Geneva, they have another portion American power net as a portion, and then I'd have to get to you the exact

1567
02:03:44,650 --> 02:03:49,210
Right now the number was 15% so IMEA owns 15% of

1568
02:03:49,210 --> 02:03:54,090
And what percentage of IMEA is for Wenaka?

1569
02:03:54,830 --> 02:03:59,830
We're just shy of 4% of IMEA. What is 4% times 15%

1570
02:03:59,830 --> 02:04:03,690
0.6%

1571
02:04:06,430 --> 02:04:10,250
Point zero six, percent, or is it point?

1572
02:04:14,820 --> 02:04:22,300
I think it would just be really curious for us to stay in tune with the bigger issue.

1573
02:04:22,460 --> 02:04:24,280
And it's just a thought process.

1574
02:04:24,340 --> 02:04:29,640
Like as we're talking about, right, significant decision that we have to make about the future.

1575
02:04:30,660 --> 02:04:33,740
And yes, it's ten years from now when this contractor news.

1576
02:04:34,420 --> 02:04:42,280
But my concern is we're betting the farm because we know our destiny with what we have today.

1577
02:04:44,140 --> 02:04:48,660
And we're betting the farm on something that we don't have all the information, right?

1578
02:04:48,660 --> 02:04:52,420
There's lots of other options out there, lots of other communities are doing it.

1579
02:04:53,400 --> 02:04:58,640
But relative to the cost and the cost is not necessarily just a economic cost.

1580
02:04:58,640 --> 02:05:01,100
But the, you know, what is our, you know,

1581
02:05:01,140 --> 02:05:06,460
how dirty is when ECHA's energy, and I'm piecing things together,

1582
02:05:07,320 --> 02:05:14,040
but that in the farm, because of a 0.06 or 0.6% of our energy comes

1583
02:05:14,040 --> 02:05:15,480
from a dirty source,

1584
02:05:20,860 --> 02:05:21,020
okay,

1585
02:05:23,960 --> 02:05:25,480
okay, thank you.

1586
02:05:27,060 --> 02:05:33,260
And I piecing together my head, is it worth it to take the risk in terms

1587
02:05:33,260 --> 02:05:39,860
of, you know, us making the decision to bank for literally the next couple decades economically

1588
02:05:39,860 --> 02:05:48,040
to all of the residents in the town with a lot of unknowns, and that's my concern about

1589
02:05:48,040 --> 02:05:52,540
making a decision to not continue with IMEA. Fair enough? Fair enough?

1590
02:05:52,960 --> 02:05:56,640
So, just a couple other, okay. Maybe, might you think so.

1591
02:05:56,800 --> 02:06:02,200
So, on our plant we run when IMEA asks us to run the plant, right?

1592
02:06:03,640 --> 02:06:08,880
So, as I mentioned, IMEA as a 24-7 dispatch center.

1593
02:06:09,320 --> 02:06:13,560
There, as a participating member in PJM, this is one of their requirements, their

1594
02:06:13,560 --> 02:06:20,100
monitoring, real-time power prices, and they dispatch us when it's most advantageous for the

1595
02:06:20,100 --> 02:06:20,420
agency.

1596
02:06:22,260 --> 02:06:29,280
So, we spread those benefits out, you know, the avoided cost of buying that power by producing

1597
02:06:29,280 --> 02:06:30,140
it instead.

1598
02:06:30,140 --> 02:06:36,800
you spread those benefits out. In this scenario where we were alone, there are significant risks

1599
02:06:36,800 --> 02:06:40,380
to non-performance, which I can defer to mark on the exact numbers,

1600
02:06:42,400 --> 02:06:43,060
but the same we were with,

1601
02:06:43,200 --> 02:06:48,460
we were just on our own as a PG and participant, if they called us to generate our current fleet consists

1602
02:06:48,460 --> 02:07:00,120
of equipment that's very old. If there were a failure and we did not produce, there could be

1603
02:07:00,120 --> 02:07:06,700
cross 32 members, so it's you kind of hits the best of both worlds, I guess you spread

1604
02:07:06,700 --> 02:07:08,760
the risk and you spread the rewards.

1605
02:07:10,040 --> 02:07:17,800
Well, last question, does our current agreement with IMEA allow for us to incentivize residents

1606
02:07:17,800 --> 02:07:25,720
to use solar to do other sustainable measures, I know whether it's geothermal or heat pumps

1607
02:07:26,700 --> 02:07:29,620
There's nothing in the IMEA contract that would prevent us.

1608
02:07:29,780 --> 02:07:29,960
That's a lot.

1609
02:07:30,000 --> 02:07:41,360
Local policy issue. So, like I mentioned, to trustee Myers, if the village wanted to set aside, let's just say, $100,000 in

1610
02:07:41,360 --> 02:07:56,360
2026 to incentivize solar, we can do that as a local rate maker, where the revenue comes from, we'll have to determine that if it's from the rate base, or are we going to see grant funding, but that's something locally we can do right now.

1611
02:07:56,360 --> 02:07:57,680
Okay. Thank you.

1612
02:07:59,260 --> 02:08:02,760
Trust the handler from remote. Any questions?

1613
02:08:03,960 --> 02:08:07,120
Well, here are my fellow trustees have made some great comments.

1614
02:08:08,100 --> 02:08:09,500
And as is the audience, thank you.

1615
02:08:09,500 --> 02:08:10,980
This has been extremely informative.

1616
02:08:11,840 --> 02:08:15,460
You know, one of the things I was interested in Nick is how, you know,

1617
02:08:15,540 --> 02:08:19,760
it made me think that the IME contract and how it's fit in

1618
02:08:19,760 --> 02:08:22,660
to our energy plan and when that got for the last couple of decades

1619
02:08:22,660 --> 02:08:27,180
isn't necessarily how it has to fit in to our energy plan in the future.

1620
02:08:27,480 --> 02:08:34,140
NICU lists at a whole, you had a nice list there of a lot of sustainable initiatives

1621
02:08:34,140 --> 02:08:41,180
that people can take on their own as individual homeowners or we can take as a community.

1622
02:08:41,940 --> 02:08:48,680
And we can do those along with having a contract like IMEA with IMEA.

1623
02:08:48,680 --> 02:08:59,300
to Rob's point, I am concerned about reliability and a fair cost for our and and predictability for our residents.

1624
02:08:59,580 --> 02:09:03,820
I think I said this in one of our study sessions that in the 40 years I've lived here.

1625
02:09:03,920 --> 02:09:08,740
I've never heard people talk about complain about one on a caucus survey.

1626
02:09:09,060 --> 02:09:10,440
What's wrong with our electricity?

1627
02:09:10,440 --> 02:09:18,720
Because it's reliable, it's fair, it's fairly priced, and the community's happy with it.

1628
02:09:19,440 --> 02:09:23,520
So, not saying that things aren't going to change if people want to look for some alternatives,

1629
02:09:23,620 --> 02:09:27,900
but I feel like we can accomplish both.

1630
02:09:28,240 --> 02:09:32,040
They said what we're hearing and what we're learning from both the residents here tonight,

1631
02:09:32,920 --> 02:09:39,500
and all the work, Nick, and thank you, Mark, and we all have done over the last year

1632
02:09:39,500 --> 02:09:43,120
to learn and understand what the risks are,

1633
02:09:43,220 --> 02:09:45,520
what the costs are, and what this would entail.

1634
02:09:47,600 --> 02:09:48,440
Okay, thank you.

1635
02:09:48,460 --> 02:09:49,440
We're a comment in a question.

1636
02:09:49,500 --> 02:09:50,140
No, that's great.

1637
02:09:50,220 --> 02:09:51,320
Thank you very much.

1638
02:09:52,900 --> 02:09:58,360
Before we wrap up, I think everyone in the room

1639
02:09:58,360 --> 02:09:59,720
has probably heard the commitment

1640
02:09:59,720 --> 02:10:01,420
from the trustees around the table

1641
02:10:01,420 --> 02:10:03,420
that one of our priorities,

1642
02:10:04,300 --> 02:10:06,000
your respective of this contract,

1643
02:10:06,000 --> 02:10:10,000
is to do better locally with our sustainability plan.

1644
02:10:10,480 --> 02:10:12,500
And that's going to be an all-fronts.

1645
02:10:12,500 --> 02:10:15,060
At least, Steiner over here is our sustainability coordinator.

1646
02:10:16,360 --> 02:10:19,400
You know, has been with us, I don't know, at least six months or so, right?

1647
02:10:20,940 --> 02:10:25,240
She's kind of charged with working throughout the village in terms of what we can do.

1648
02:10:25,860 --> 02:10:31,520
Nick has already talked about in the past, and we have a consultant at the moment looking

1649
02:10:31,520 --> 02:10:36,540
that ways that we might be able to power the plant on a sustainable basis, right?

1650
02:10:36,540 --> 02:10:41,660
Now, it's diesel on natural gas, we're looking at that, the solar farm potential out

1651
02:10:41,660 --> 02:10:48,000
in the yards, out at the landfill, and the EFC, we have our representatives tonight from

1652
02:10:48,000 --> 02:10:53,000
the EFC, including Scarlett Harper, where I think left, but we're charging it, we're

1653
02:10:53,000 --> 02:10:58,660
going to charge the EFC with looking at broadly what residents can do, and some of the issues

1654
02:10:58,660 --> 02:11:04,180
that we've talked about, you know, the pricing issues, the solar, you know, maybe we haven't

1655
02:11:04,180 --> 02:11:04,740
sent a program.

1656
02:11:05,160 --> 02:11:11,960
So these, again, you know, I know the big, the big issue here is the contract, but we're

1657
02:11:11,960 --> 02:11:13,980
going to be doing better.

1658
02:11:13,980 --> 02:11:17,900
At a month from now, when we sit down in our June study session, we're going to be talking about

1659
02:11:17,900 --> 02:11:19,420
priorities for the council members.

1660
02:11:19,900 --> 02:11:23,900
And obviously, we have priorities, we have stormwater, we've hovered woods, we have all sorts

1661
02:11:23,900 --> 02:11:25,140
of things, we have the most office.

1662
02:11:25,140 --> 02:11:30,200
But this sustainability issue for this village is going to move forward.

1663
02:11:30,460 --> 02:11:32,000
I can assure you of that.

1664
02:11:33,440 --> 02:11:36,160
And so it's on the minds of everyone here.

1665
02:11:36,780 --> 02:11:39,840
It's on your minds, and as it was echoed many times,

1666
02:11:40,320 --> 02:11:42,760
there's a deep well of intellect in this room right now.

1667
02:11:42,820 --> 02:11:44,280
And we completely understand that.

1668
02:11:44,420 --> 02:11:48,540
We received letters, beautifully written letters, compelling points.

1669
02:11:49,180 --> 02:11:51,620
We read them all, so thank you for that.

1670
02:11:51,620 --> 02:12:00,620
Before we wrap up any thoughts, before we go, where are we going next steps, anything like that?

1671
02:12:01,640 --> 02:12:02,620
What are the next steps?

1672
02:12:04,060 --> 02:12:08,640
Well, I think that I'd like some clarity on the numbers.

1673
02:12:08,900 --> 02:12:09,780
I mean a little bit.

1674
02:12:10,060 --> 02:12:10,580
We can.

1675
02:12:11,340 --> 02:12:11,500
Okay.

1676
02:12:11,840 --> 02:12:15,940
There is a grain can, you know, where people are saying,

1677
02:12:16,160 --> 02:12:17,900
so I'm just trying to make sure our numbers are right.

1678
02:12:19,140 --> 02:12:21,100
And it just helps us inform it.

1679
02:12:21,100 --> 02:12:28,400
I'd also like to get a little clarity on, I like the idea that the fact that if we're going

1680
02:12:28,400 --> 02:12:33,740
to try and push on me, whatever reason, what I'm asking we are, but if we do another contract,

1681
02:12:34,620 --> 02:12:38,840
how do we get their faster with on me, how what true weight we have, and I know part of

1682
02:12:38,840 --> 02:12:43,380
us can be in the market, as the market knows, as you said, if there's a cheaper, or a better

1683
02:12:43,380 --> 02:12:47,420
source, even if it's parity cost, to be able to push IMEA faster,

1684
02:12:49,620 --> 02:12:50,540
not in 20 years,

1685
02:12:50,620 --> 02:12:51,720
but in five years.

1686
02:12:53,080 --> 02:12:53,620
All right.

1687
02:12:53,780 --> 02:12:55,420
Nick, you can come back to us with that, probably.

1688
02:12:55,560 --> 02:12:56,640
Some of that information, Scott?

1689
02:12:57,900 --> 02:12:58,020
Yeah.

1690
02:12:58,400 --> 02:13:05,820
I think what we're all wrestling with is we are being asked to commit a future generation in

1691
02:13:05,820 --> 02:13:07,080
terms of two things.

1692
02:13:07,080 --> 02:13:19,660
One is the stability and price of electricity, and at the same time, we're kind of committing them to a certain kind of an environment, right?

1693
02:13:19,660 --> 02:13:29,260
And I think we're all concerned about both of those in terms of how much risk do we take on, because the more flexibility you have,

1694
02:13:29,460 --> 02:13:36,080
the more you either have to incur costs, the manage that flexibility or else it's just risk, right?

1695
02:13:37,080 --> 02:13:58,000
I think that one way to address this question of committing a future generation in terms of the environment is to really be serious today about investing in green energy in this village.

1696
02:13:58,000 --> 02:14:04,060
Right? I know it's a nice list. We've got a sustainability coordinator. But if this group

1697
02:14:04,740 --> 02:14:10,900
doesn't commit to putting dollars behind it, it's just going to be two residents here,

1698
02:14:11,080 --> 02:14:16,420
it's going to be a little of this and a little of that. So I think that, you know, what we're hearing

1699
02:14:16,420 --> 02:14:22,420
certainly from a set of residents, not 100%. But I think they're pretty representative,

1700
02:14:23,100 --> 02:14:27,300
is that there's a desire to make a significant commitment. And I think that, you know, we've got

1701
02:14:27,300 --> 02:14:33,240
determine what that significant point is. But it's not $100,000, right? And we got to figure

1702
02:14:33,240 --> 02:14:35,240
out what it is and where it comes from.

1703
02:14:35,360 --> 02:14:38,700
Yeah. I mean, there was some analysis. I mean, I think the current, and you can crack

1704
02:14:38,700 --> 02:14:43,900
me on this Nick and Rob, but I think the current estimate for the solar field out at the landfill,

1705
02:14:44,620 --> 02:14:49,440
it's a $5 to $7 million commitment investment to do that.

1706
02:14:49,660 --> 02:14:53,720
Right. There's different ways to structure. Correct. The financing and that if it wasn't

1707
02:14:53,720 --> 02:14:57,560
asset that the villager wanted to own, then it would be about five to seven million dollars.

1708
02:14:58,020 --> 02:14:59,980
So, you know, Scott, you're right. We...

1709
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:05,100
And to look at that, just like any resident would look at the payback on their rooftop solar.

1710
02:15:05,360 --> 02:15:12,220
I mean, we need to analyze it and, you know, have meetings like this where we could take the pulse of the residents,

1711
02:15:12,220 --> 02:15:17,200
are we willing to pay for that? And so, yes, I think we will be, we will be doing that.

1712
02:15:18,180 --> 02:15:29,200
I guess the question here in my mind, at least, is, Nick, you mentioned in your report that we're currently on an extension

1713
02:15:29,200 --> 02:15:37,000
with IMEA through June, and at the June board meeting, they will decide if Naperville or

1714
02:15:37,000 --> 02:15:41,420
saying Charles, whatever, if they're going to continue to extend. We don't know. If they

1715
02:15:41,420 --> 02:15:49,780
say no, then our entry back into IMEA could be allowed not allowed with a premium, not a premium,

1716
02:15:49,900 --> 02:15:56,000
we don't know. But that is the reality of the timeframe with IMEA at the moment. Am I correct

1717
02:15:56,000 --> 02:15:56,720
on that.

1718
02:15:57,280 --> 02:16:03,060
So the open contract period initially was supposed to end on April 30th.

1719
02:16:03,080 --> 02:16:07,340
There was no action taken to extend that deadline at the last meeting, but there was

1720
02:16:07,340 --> 02:16:09,080
a desire to do so.

1721
02:16:09,900 --> 02:16:16,060
Suggestion was made to extend the open contract period to August, the August board meeting.

1722
02:16:16,860 --> 02:16:21,600
Based on comments made in the room, I have a feeling that it could be ending as early

1723
02:16:21,600 --> 02:16:22,160
as June.

1724
02:16:22,160 --> 02:16:25,960
It just depends on what the board does. Again, this is a board of 32 communities.

1725
02:16:26,480 --> 02:16:32,700
They're the ones that decide what happens. It's not IMEA staff. So if the open

1726
02:16:32,700 --> 02:16:38,480
contract period ends in June or August, and the contract decide after that, then it's not like

1727
02:16:38,480 --> 02:16:44,180
you're coming to them with a blank contract. It's you're starting from scratch. There's potential

1728
02:16:44,180 --> 02:16:51,500
for there's uncertainty on this. There's uncertainty. So ultimately, ultimately, we need

1729
02:16:52,180 --> 02:16:57,900
an ordinance to vote on to either vote to not extend the contract or to vote to extend the contract.

1730
02:16:59,240 --> 02:17:06,500
And in my mind, we may not take up that ordinance in the next meeting or the meeting after that.

1731
02:17:06,620 --> 02:17:13,120
But I think we should charge our bill of attorney to put together the ordinance so that ultimately we have something to vote on.

1732
02:17:13,400 --> 02:17:17,900
When we have the information that we need, I don't know what the thinking is around the table here.

1733
02:17:17,900 --> 02:17:26,200
You know, I'll be talking to people, see if there's any consensus one way or another, but we will need an ordinance to do this.

1734
02:17:26,600 --> 02:17:32,980
And so I don't know if folks here think that we should have Elrod Friedman put that together and have it available.

1735
02:17:34,040 --> 02:17:38,760
Well, what I just heard is if we don't make a decision before they meet in June.

1736
02:17:40,060 --> 02:17:42,140
I mean, right now we're technically in default, right?

1737
02:17:42,140 --> 02:17:44,780
or we were past the deadline, is that correct?

1738
02:17:45,780 --> 02:17:48,260
Right, so no action was taken at the April meeting,

1739
02:17:48,640 --> 02:17:52,600
so that contractors still technically open the membership

1740
02:17:52,600 --> 02:17:54,800
may decide in June to close that door

1741
02:17:54,800 --> 02:17:56,880
or they may decide to let it go to August.

1742
02:17:57,420 --> 02:17:58,960
All right, I can't predict what the membership

1743
02:17:58,960 --> 02:17:59,920
is gonna decide.

1744
02:18:01,160 --> 02:18:05,560
I just want voice, I feel like we have a responsibility

1745
02:18:05,560 --> 02:18:08,920
as a member to give some direction to IMEA,

1746
02:18:08,920 --> 02:18:15,580
So where we're at, I would, and, I mean, we consider on here an informally, or I'd do

1747
02:18:15,580 --> 02:18:18,920
a straw poll or something, but we could, we could, we could seek that direction again.

1748
02:18:19,640 --> 02:18:22,020
I mean, Rob, could we go back to them again?

1749
02:18:23,440 --> 02:18:24,380
We could get their thought?

1750
02:18:24,980 --> 02:18:29,680
I mean, I mean, I think it's going to be discussed on the June board, board meeting as to

1751
02:18:29,680 --> 02:18:30,600
what the time frame is going to be.

1752
02:18:30,600 --> 02:18:37,960
So this was not, you know, but by having our attorney draft the ordinance, we can table

1753
02:18:37,960 --> 02:18:38,420
the ordinance?

1754
02:18:38,420 --> 02:18:39,920
Correct. We can defer.

1755
02:18:40,660 --> 02:18:41,140
We can vote.

1756
02:18:41,280 --> 02:18:43,020
We can vote in favor of it.

1757
02:18:43,280 --> 02:18:45,080
It's just, we're just going to have it.

1758
02:18:45,220 --> 02:18:45,380
Correct.

1759
02:18:45,760 --> 02:18:47,200
That would be my thought.

1760
02:18:48,300 --> 02:18:49,540
Kirk was saying the opposite.

1761
02:18:50,040 --> 02:18:53,020
I was saying we have a responsibility to IMEA to tell them.

1762
02:18:53,220 --> 02:18:54,580
Eventually, one way where what we were going.

1763
02:18:54,700 --> 02:18:55,720
Oh, is that what you were doing?

1764
02:18:56,000 --> 02:18:56,220
I'm sorry.

1765
02:18:56,360 --> 02:18:56,900
If I wasn't.

1766
02:18:57,200 --> 02:18:59,600
I don't like the idea of risk.

1767
02:19:00,420 --> 02:19:00,680
Okay.

1768
02:19:01,940 --> 02:19:04,960
My big concern right now is that we miss this window.

1769
02:19:05,760 --> 02:19:06,060
Okay.

1770
02:19:06,060 --> 02:19:11,140
And asking for forgiveness, could carry a huge price tag with it?

1771
02:19:13,060 --> 02:19:18,180
So is there a consensus thought that we should have a Rod Friedman put this together?

1772
02:19:19,140 --> 02:19:19,860
Have it available?

1773
02:19:20,520 --> 02:19:21,560
We get information.

1774
02:19:24,060 --> 02:19:25,300
Doesn't commit to anything.

1775
02:19:25,860 --> 02:19:27,140
We'll need it eventually, right?

1776
02:19:27,220 --> 02:19:32,460
I don't know when it would be on the agenda, but we need some information back on pricing

1777
02:19:32,460 --> 02:19:39,300
any other questions that might come up, go through Rob, and he'll get that information from

1778
02:19:39,300 --> 02:19:42,700
Nick or from Mr. Prood. Thank you for your help tonight.

1779
02:19:43,800 --> 02:19:49,320
Late. Thank you for your help tonight. Okay. It's past 9 o'clock.

1780
02:19:51,340 --> 02:19:54,700
Let's see here. I think it's

1781
02:19:54,700 --> 02:19:58,620
time unless anyone has any other comments to adjourn. May I have a motion to adjourn?

1782
02:19:59,720 --> 02:20:00,200
Second.

1783
02:20:01,020 --> 02:20:02,880
We'll call vote.

1784
02:20:03,180 --> 02:20:04,020
Good voice vote.

1785
02:20:04,240 --> 02:20:04,600
On favor.

1786
02:20:05,200 --> 02:20:05,340
Aye.

1787
02:20:05,760 --> 02:20:05,820
Aye.

1788
02:20:05,820 --> 02:20:05,900
Aye.

1789
02:20:06,360 --> 02:20:08,660
Okay. Thank you. We're adjourned. Thank you everybody.

1790
02:20:08,860 --> 02:20:09,280
Thank you.