No evidence of a turnaround at Prairie state
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Key Findings
Prairie State’s actual operating performance during the eight month period January through August 2014 was 18 percent lower than its owners had budgeted.
Prairie State’s actual operating performance during the months of May through August was approximately 26 percent below what the plant’s owners had budgeted. This continued poorer than predicted performance was significant in that both Prairie State units had completed extended planned maintenance outages by the end of April that were supposed to address problems that had been experienced since startup.
The 64 percent capacity factor that Prairie State achieved during the first eight months of 2014 did not represent a significant ‘turnaround’ from the 58 percent factor that the plant had achieved in 2012 or the 60 percent capacity factor it achieved in 2013.
Executive Summary
American Municipal Power (AMP) and Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency (NIMPA), two of the owners of the Prairie State coal plant, have recently released data on the plant’s operating performance and cost of power for the months January through August 2014. This information demonstrates that there has been no meaningful “turnaround” in either the plant’s performance or its higher cost of power as compared to market prices.
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