One year after breaking ground on the nation's largest coal-fired power plant under construction, officials with Prairie State Generating Co. said the project has been running on schedule.

Construction of the first of two boiler units and a chimney for the 1,600-megawatt facility has made substantial progress, and groundwork has begun preparing for entry into an adjacent coal mine that will fuel the plant.

Dave Price, Prairie State's senior vice president for the power plant project, said the chimney - which towers over the site - has reached a height of about 300 feet. It will be approximately 700 feet tall once completed.

"We're erecting about 15 feet every day," he said. Price said the structure will be the tallest in Washington County.

The first boiler unit represents the first phase of the project, which officials plan to have operational by the summer of 2011, Price said. A majority of materials for the project are on site, which will help ensure the schedule is maintained.

The coal mine portion of the "campus" will be opened by 2010, and the second unit will become operational in the first quarter of 2012, Price said.

At present, a total of 1,100 workers are employed at the location, and that number will reach 2,500 at the peak of construction. At last October's groundbreaking, state and company officials stressed the importance of using local labor in the construction process, and Price said the promise to do so is being upheld.

"We'll have to bring in outside labor only when the local halls can't provide any more," he said.

Likewise, the company has tried to use as much locally-procured materials as possible, including subcontract work, he said. These materials and contracts are all let out to bid, but local companies and sellers are always included on bid lists, he said.

Peter DeQuattro, CEO of Prairie State, said the project represents a major commitment to the Southern Illinois region. With total costs for the project approaching $4 billion, including the adjacent coal mine and more than $500 million in state of the art pollution controls, Prairie State's nine partners have already made a large investment in the project.

Forecasted economic impact benefits on the region total as high as $125 million annually, he said. That money will support local communities - like Washington County - that have helped with the project. The county provided potable water lines to the site and built a new road leading to the campus' entrance.

"This project stands as a great example of what a community, municipalities, (electric) co-ops and companies can do working together to help solve a current and forecast-to-be future problem in this country, and that's energy," he said.

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