CWLP Electric Division

City Water, Light & Power is the supplier of electricity for Springfield residents and businesses. CWLP's Electric Division facilities include the Dallman and Lakeside coal-fired power plants, three diesel generators, two sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubbers serving the three Dallman plants, a maintenance facility and a waste water treatment plant. A selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system, which significantly reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the Dallman plants, was completed and placed in service in May 2003. In addition, the Division maintains an operations dispatch center and transmission and distribution (T&D) engineering office; an electric overhead, underground, substation and service office; three peaking turbines; and a number of substations. The utility is also in the process of constructing a new 200-MW coal-fired power plant.

In addition to owning our own generating capacity, CWLP has entered into two long-term contracts to purchase up to 120 megawatts of wind power.

CWLP earns
national diamond-level RP3 award
for dedication to providing
safe, reliable electric service!

In mid-April 2006, the American Public Power Association (APPA) awarded CWLP with its highest Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) certification — a diamond level — signifying the utility had achieved 100% compliance with all perfor-mance requirements. CWLP was only one of seven public power utilities in the United States to receive the diamond RP3. There are more than 2,000 public power utilities serving communities across the nation.
     The RP3 program designates four specific areas of proficiency—reliability, safety, training and system improvements—to measure a utility's performance.
     CWLP uses five different indices to track its reliability and demonstrates an outstand-ing record in each compared to other public power utilities and Illinois' investor-owned utilities.
     In the safety category, the utility was judged on its use of employee safety manuals, monthly employee safety meetings and refresher training courses, audio-visual training materials, certified trainers, and other safe work practices.
     The CWLP Electric Division uses a variety of traditional training opportunities, including conferences and workshops, in-house training sessions, college classes, and professional development courses to ensure engineers, linemen, construction crews and all other key division personnel will remain up-to-date regarding state-of-the-art work techniques and technology.
     System improvement efforts also won high marks for the utility. CWLP conducts a variety of both routine and special infrastruc-ture improvement projects aimed at enhancing system reliability and safety. These include a major transmission line rebuild completed in 2005, an overhead-to-underground line conversion program, and an upgrade of the utility's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. In what will be the utility's largest system improvement ever, CWLP is in the process of securing all permits required to build a new 200-MW power plant that is scheduled for completion in 2009.
     APPA's Reliable Public Power Provider program has three possible levels of certifi-cation: gold for members who meet 80% of the performance criteria; platinum for those meeting 90%; and diamond for those meeting 100%.

Generation and T&D aren’t the only responsibilities of the Electric Division. The Division has also installed over 100 miles of high-speed fiber optic communications cable throughout Springfield. The initial purpose of the installation was to improve communications between CWLP facilities. With this goal accomplished the utility is now making it possible for other members of our community to gain access to the network and to benefit from the advantages it offers. To date, all of the city’s public schools, two parochial schools, Sangamon County Government, the University of Illinois at Springfield, and several businesses have connected to CWLP’s high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN) at a lower cost than they would have paid for a similar service from private-sector telecommunications companies.

Planning a landscaping or other project that will involve digging?
First call JULIE (Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators) at 1-800-892-0123. JULIE will arrange for representatives from your utility service providers (electricity, water, cable, gas, telephone) to come to your property and mark the location of each underground service.

If you dig without calling JULIE first, not only could you be putting your life and property in danger, you can be held financially liable for any damages occurring to utility property.

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