Eastern’s administration is looking for new ways to fund a new power plant, while a capital projects bill for Illinois remains far from completion.

At the June 23 Board of Trustees’ meeting, the university purchased a $250,000 contract with Honeywell International to perform an energy audit on campus.

The result of the audit will determine if Eastern could pay for Illinois’ portion of a new power plant.

“We decided to move forward without state money, and we are trying to see if that is going to be feasible or not,” President Bill Perry said.

The audit, which has started, will see if Eastern could reduce energy costs.

Those savings from reduced costs would then go to funding the new plant.

Eastern would need to save about $25 million to cover what it was asking from the state.

“This will probably be the largest project that we have ever undertaken,” said Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs.

Eastern originally wanted to fund $35 million of the new power plant that is projected to be a $60 million project.

The new plant would have co-generation capabilities that would allow Eastern to produce its own electricity.

In September 2007, the Illinois Senate passed a version of a capital bill for the state that included $25 million for a new power plant for Eastern.

A capital bill has never been put into place, mainly because the General Assembly and Gov. Rod Blagojevich cannot agree on how to fund the bill, Perry said.

To fund the entire $60 million project, Cooley said Eastern would sell certificates of participation, which are like a bond.

“We would borrow the money on that,” Cooley said.

He added the university has sold certificates of participation before with two other energy conservation projects, but neither projects were as expensive as the new plant.

Cooley said Honeywell has already identified certain conservation measures such as upgrading Eastern’s switchyard to allow the university to take on power at a higher level.

The measure would lower the rate on Eastern’s electric costs, he added.

The audit should be completed in mid-October, Cooley said.

As far as the need for a new power plant, Cooley said he is very nervous about this year because the steam plant is a year older.

The current steam plant is operating on 1928 technology, he said. Last winter, heating costs increased because one of the coal boilers broke.

“We’ll do everything we can to keep it going.but I don’t want to say that no questions, no problems that it is going to last because we had two catastrophic failures last year,” Cooley said.

Gary Reed, director of facilities, planning and management, said he could not predict with any certainty how long the steam plant will be able to produce steam.

He is also nervous about this year when it comes to heating and cooling the campus, he added.

Reed said Eastern would continue to support the passing of a capital bill so that a new plant will be constructed as soon as possible because designing of the new plant is ongoing.

Perry said if a capital bill is passed, the combination of energy savings and state money will help fund the new steam plant.

The bill’s total has been cut down since the senate passed its version in September.

He is not as nervous about the current steam plant this coming year, he added.

“I think we’ll do okay this winter.”

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].