Ameren Boosts MO 5-year Smart Grid Investment to $7.6B, Plans $1.2B Wind Purchase
Date Posted: February 28, 2020
Posted In: News, Organizations,
From UtilityDive: Ameren on Wednesday filed an expansion of its Smart Energy Plan (SEP) with Missouri regulators, laying out a strategy to install 1.2 million smart meters by 2025 and purchase two wind farms totaling 700 MW by the end of this year. The total price tag for the modernization plan is more than $7.6 billion.
The utility’s initial $6.3 billion grid modernization plan was filed with the Missouri Public Service Commission last year. Since then, Ameren says it has completed 900 projects, including installing new storm-resilient utility poles and smart switches to reduce outages, and completing 13 new or upgraded substations.
Ameren also announced its earnings this week, including 2019 net income of $828 million, or $3.35/diluted share, compared to 2018 net income of $815 million. The utility said higher earnings were a result of increased infrastructure and energy efficiency investments, and higher natural gas delivery rates in its Illinois territory.
Dive Insight:
Ameren’s grid modernization effort in the Show Me State includes $1.2 billion to purchase two wind facilities this year and almost $280 million for smart meters through 2025, along with transmission upgrades, technology investments and a host of other capital expenditures. The plan will help the utility catch up with modernization efforts in its Illinois territory, which lawmakers there authorized in 2011.
Ameren told regulators it expects to spend $1.1 billion in Missouri in 2020, in addition to the wind purchase, rising to about $1.3 billion in each of the next four years. Officials say ultimately every Ameren customer will have advanced metering and the state will see the benefits of a more sophisticated electric delivery system.
The utility filed its SEP strategy as a capital investment plan with the Missouri Public Service Commission on Feb. 26.
“Grid modernization investments in our Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution business have been delivering significant benefits to customers in the state of Illinois for years, and investments made under the Smart Energy Plan filed in 2019 are already delivering customer benefits and creating new jobs in the state of Missouri,” Ameren Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Warner Baxter said in the company’s earnings statement.