According to local newspaper the Southern Illinoisan, Prairie State Energy is seeking to boost employment from 450 to nearly 500 at the mine near Marissa, Washington County, that serves the large Prairie State power plant adjacent to the property.

While neither Prairie State Energy Campus nor financer Peabody Energy made public comment on the growth this week, company officials told the paper that a contract has just been finalized and it will begin commercial power production in February.

PSEC held a hiring event in nearby Marion on Monday in hopes of finding the crews needed to meet the demand.

The entire Prairie State Energy campus includes a coal-fired generating plant as well as the underground coal mine. The facility, according to its statistics, will generate 1600 megawatts of power.

About 95% of the output is already dedicated to eight Midwestern-based public power utilities, it said, and will go on to serve 2.5 million families in the region.

The facility’s owners include Peabody as well as American Municipal Power, Illinois Municipal Electric, Indiana Municipal Power, Kentucky Municipal Power, Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, Northern Illinois Municipal Power, Prairie Power and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative.