In a social media post, City of McLeansboro Mayor Chad May is getting ahead of potential power outages in his city this summer. He says the municipality currently purchases power from SIPC (Southern Illinois Power Co-Op) in Marion and though the facility is a 500 megawatt facility while McLeansboro is only a 5 megawatt customer, he anticipates the city could be impacted if the coop isn’t able to meet demand.
Last summer, the city was within minutes of receiving a call requiring the town to shed load, according to May. He says it’s entirely possible the city could call on residents to minimize electric usage by raising thermostats, running electric appliances during non peak times, and turning off any and all lights not needed. The city may also supplement power production by running their generator at the light plant, but they’re only allowed to run the plant for a set amount of hours each year before the EPA puts a clamp on it. Additionally, the diesel expense for the city to run their generator for 9 hours last year…$10,000. Running the plant impacts electric rates for customers the following month, May says.
Ultimately, if the light plant doesn’t produce enough electricity to offset enough of the required load shed, officials will have to impose rolling blackouts on circuits in town as a last resort. May says if it comes to that, residents can expect those blackouts to last for 30 minute increments. Officials will meet with other electric cooperatives next month and review the Maximum Generation Emergency plan and therefore plans may change.
