Southern Illinois Power Cooperative (SIPC), located at the Lake of Egypt, just south of Marion, Illinois is our wholesale power supplier. In 1963, Southern Illinois Power Cooperative (SIPC) began producing electricity for three distribution cooperative members at its Marion plant. At that time, SIPC's plant capacity was 99 megawatts (MW) which far exceeded member requirements. The plant consisted of three 33 MW turbines, each powered by a cyclone boiler.

SIEC is one of three original member-owners of SIPC. Egyptian Electric Cooperative of Steeleville, IL and SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative of Eldorado, IL are also original member-owners. Tri-County Electric Cooperative of Mt. Vernon, IL and Clinton

SIPC Area

County Electric Cooperative of Breese, IL became member-owners of SIPC in the spring of 2000 and Monroe County Electric Cooperative of Waterloo, IL became a member-owner of SIPC in July 2002. The SIPC Board of Directors is composed of four representatives from each of the six members. SIPC built Lake of Egypt as a source of cooling water but offers the lake for public recreation and residential development.

In the 1970's, the demand for electricity surged and threatened to exceed SIPC's plant capacity. A decision was made to construct a fourth generating unit. Unit 4 came online in 1978 and provides 173 MW of generating capacity.

In the 1990's, changes in the utility industry made it increasingly difficult for a small power producer such as SIPC to thrive. Furthermore, the original plant was nearing the end of its useful life and SIPC faced a decision about how to replace this capacity. Over the next few years, SIPC doubled the membership to include Monroe County Electric Cooperative in Waterloo, Clinton County Electric Cooperative in Breese and Tri-County Electric Cooperative in Mt. Vernon. With these additions, the number of end users receiving power from SIPC grew to nearly 80,000.

The growth in membership enabled SIPC to completely refurbish the old units. The three old boilers were replaced with one circulating fluidized bed boiler. The new boiler is environmentally friendly and burns mostly carbon. While the new boiler was under construction, SIPC also added additional pollution control equipment to Unit 4. Taken together, these improvements allow SIPC to meet environmental standards and insure that the plant will continue to operate well into the future. Both the new unit and Unit 4 burn local coal and carbon.

In the past, SIPC relied on neighboring utilities when demand for electricity was more than they could produce. In today's market, electricity is traded like any other commodity. To reduce reliance on the market, SIPC built two natural gas-fired combustion turbines. These units can be started when market prices are high or when incoming transmission lines are too congested to import power.

To deal with the increasingly complex electricity market, SIPC and three other similar cooperatives formed ACES Power Marketing in 1999. ACES, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, has grown to 16 members and provides numerous services related to buying and selling power.

The electricity market continues to evolve. Most utilities have been ordered to join a group to improve reliability of the transmission system. SIPC belongs to the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO). MISO monitors power flowing throughout much of the Midwest.