American Municipal Power, Inc. is a non-profit leader in wholesale power supply for municipal electric systems. AMP serves 129 members in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Delaware. Combined, these publicly owned utilities serve approximately 625,000 customers.
In 2007, New Bremen, Ohio was faced with endlessly increasing market power rates. All of the city's wholesale contracts were headed for non-renewal, and the town owned only about 20 percent of its sources. Prairie State seemed like the only viable solution.
"Prairie State was a long-term strategy for New Bremen," said Wayne York, village administrator of New Bremen.
"The intent of getting into Prairie State was to ensure that New Bremen had a reliable and adequate supply of power in an increasingly unsure power supply world."New Bremen now has firm generation owned assets for 10.2 MW or 74% of its peak summer load, providing stability and security for its 3,000 residents.
"It's going to be around for a long time," said York. "We believe the Prairie State project will prove to be a huge benefit to the community."