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May 22, 2006 | AECI power plant named Business of the Year Contact : Nancy Southworth Associated Electric Cooperative’s Thomas Hill Energy Center, located near Moberly, Mo., was recently named Business of the Year by the Moberly Area Chamber of Commerce. The recognition was part of the chamber’s annual banquet to honor businesses and individuals in the Moberly region who make significant contributions to the region’s overall economic health. Duane Highley, AECI director of Power Production, attended the event with several employees from Thomas Hill and accepted the award for Associated. "Associated is grateful for the support of the community these past 40 years,” Highley said. “No organization can operate in a vacuum, and we have benefited from a supporting community, providing an excellent place for our employees to live their lives and raise their families. "We are very pleased to receive this recognition and hope that over the years we have been able to return a bit of that support back to the neighbors who have supported us. We are glad to have been an example, along with previous recipients of this award, of a good industrial citizen providing economic growth and caring employees to improve the place we live.” Criteria used to select the business of the year include a business’ longevity in the region, total impact on the local economy and overall impact on quality of life in the communities it serves. Thomas Hill’s first of three total generating units began commercial operation in 1966, and AECI continues to invest in the power plant. In January, Associated began a $220 million, three-year project at Thomas Hill to add controls that will further reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the plant. Ongoing environmental upgrades are part of about $1.8 billion in total investments AECI projects to make during the next 10 to 12 years. About $1.3 billion of that will go toward construction of a new coal-based power plant to generate round-the-clock electricity for AECI’s member cooperatives. The proposed plant site is northwest of Norborne, Mo., in Carroll County. An alternate site is in Holt County near Big Lake, Mo. Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. is owned by and provides wholesale power to six regional and 51 local electric cooperative systems in Missouri, southeast Iowa and northeast Oklahoma that serve more than 800,000 customers. AECI’s mission is to provide an economical and reliable power supply and support services to its members with the vision of being the nation’s lowest-cost wholesale power supplier. AECI is a Touchstone Energy Cooperative.
An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V Released: 22 May 2006
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