Ameren Missouri advocates for legislation to put into motion $1 bln grid modernization plan
Seeking to upgrade aging grid infrastructure, St. Louis-based Ameren Missouri said passage of a bill now under consideration in the Missouri Senate is critical to providing electric customers with new choices and greater convenience, while ensuring Missouri remains competitive with other states.
Missouri Senate Bill 190, sponsored by Sen. Ed Emery (R-Lamar), would modify provisions related to how rates are set for electric utilities in the state. The legislation would support Ameren Missouri’s proposal for a $1 billion, five-year grid modernization plan, which would include investments in smart meters, substation replacement, storm hardening and distribution automation to improve reliability.
“Like a lot of parts of the country, we are looking at how we go about replacing obsolete equipment and accelerating the pace of smart grid deployment,” said Warren Wood, Ameren Missouri vice president of external affairs and communications.
“We’re trying to find a way to ramp up those investment levels in Missouri to deploy this technology faster and give the benefit to customers faster, to say nothing of the economic development and jobs that come with making those sorts of investments in the region and providing a lot of new orders and work to local businesses,” Wood told Daily Energy Insider.
Ameren Missouri, a unit of Ameren Corp., provides services to 1.2 million electric customers in central and eastern Missouri, many in St. Louis. The company said its grid modernization plan would provide a $2.40 benefit to customers per $1 invested, consistent with a number of grid modernization plans in other states.
All but about four states in the country have implemented policies to either remove disincentives or to encourage investment levels in smart grid technologies, Wood said. A smart grid uses digital technology to improve reliability and efficiency of delivering electricity to customers. Modern grid technology can help shorten any power outages and can provide better protection from cyber attacks.
“When you look at the state of Missouri and look at investment levels for its electric grid, we are about in the bottom quartile in the country. Fortunately, our reliability is in the top quartile of the country,” Wood said.
The utility aims to continue improving its electric reliability in the future but without infrastructure improvements will likely face a higher risk of outages, he said.
The grid modernization plan would go beyond improving reliability to offering programs through the use of smart meters that facilitate more communication with customers, such as by notifying them of their electric usage levels outside of their monthly bills. Energy efficiency and demand-side management programs could also be taken to a new level, such as by offering customers a peak load management program that would provide credits to customers who change their electric usage patterns during peak periods.
“This enables a whole range of new choices and convenience for customers that don’t exist today,” Wood said.
Aside from its grid modernization efforts, Ameren continues to focus on supporting cleaner energy in Missouri by retiring coal-fired plants and expanding solar and wind power.
The company plans to retire about one-third of its coal-fired generating capacity. That includes converting two units at Meramec Energy Center to natural gas in 2016, and retiring the remaining units at Meramec by the end of 2022 and the Sioux Energy Center by the end of 2033.
“We’re already well below the state average for percentage of energy from coal-fired generating stations,” Wood said.
Ameren’s integrated resource plan calls for significantly expanding renewable generation by adding 400 megawatts (MW) of wind power, 45 MW of solar, 28 MW of hydroelectric and 5 MW of landfill gas.
In recent years Ameren built one of the largest solar energy projects in Missouri, the O’Fallon Renewable Energy Center. It also began operating the Maryland Heights Renewable Energy Center in the St. Louis area, the largest landfill-gas-to-electric facility in Missouri and one of the largest in the country.
SB 190 also includes a provision supporting the effort of Ameren Missouri to test the burning of processed solid biomass engineered fiber fuel in order to reduce carbon emissions.
The biomass, made from sources like sawdust from lumber manufacturing or locally grown feedstocks such as corn stover, would provide Ameren with a renewable source of fuel for its power plants while providing a revenue stream to agricultural communities in Missouri.
Separate from the plan Ameren Missouri is pursuing through the state legislature, the company filed an electric rate case with the Missouri Public Service Commission in July 2016 seeking to increase annual electric revenues by $206.4 million.
In that regulatory review the utility wants the commission to consider the nearly $1.4 billion in capital investments focused on clean energy projects it made since its last regulatory rate review about two years ago. Residential customers would pay approximately $99 more per year if the rate request is approved. A decision on that case is expected from the commission by May.
