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Illinois Underwrites Clean Boiler Technology
Illinois Governor George H. Ryan has announced grants totaling $6.8 million
to assist the Southern Illinois Power Cooperative (SIPC) with construction of
a new, cleaner burning, coal-fired boiler at its Marion Power Plant.
The State of Illinois is providing SIPC with $6 million in Coal and Energy Development
Bond funds and an $800,000 grant through the Department of Commerce and Community
Affairs (CDDA) Coal Infrastructure Program. The total construction cost of the
new boiler is estimated to be $103.7 million.
"This project is significant because SIPC is replacing three outdated and
inefficient cyclone boilers with a single state-of-the-art boiler system,"
Ryan said. "The retrofit will allow the plant to generate more electricity,
while emissions of sulfur dioxide will be reduced by 74 percent and nitrogen
oxide by 68 percent."
The circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler will replace the boilers, electrostatic
precipitators, stacks and coal silos on Marion Units 1, 2 & 3. The CFB will
produce enough steam to serve three existing steam turbines with a total generating
capacity of 120 megawatts of power, bringing the plant's total coal fired
generating capacity to 310 MW.
The CFB will burn primarily bituminous coal and bituminous coal refuse from
southern Illinois, supplemented at times with small amounts of petroleum coke,
sub-bituminous coal, tire-derived fuel, waste oil and wood chips.
SIPC is a generation and transmission cooperative, which is owned and governed
by six member distribution cooperatives. The locally owned, not-for-profit nature
of electric cooperative means that any money spent or generated by SIPC stays
in the hands of southern Illinois citizens. The state's financial assistance
will help minimize the rate increases the members will pay that are necessary
to construct the CFB project.
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