Ameren Archives - Missourinet

House hears testimony on electric utility infastructure surcharge proposal

February 28, 2013 By Mike Lear

A House Committee is considering a change to how the state’s electric companies recover the cost of rebuilding or repairing infrastructure.

Sponsor of HB 398, Representative Jeanie Riddle (second from left), listens as representatives for Empire Electric, Ameren and Kansas City Power and Light testify for the proposal. (Photo courtesy; TIm Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The proposal, HB 398, would let utility companies ask the Public Service Commission to let them charge customers an Infrastructure System Replacement Surcharge (ISRS) to recover the cost of certain types of infrastructure work or regulatory compliance, without a full rate case.

Irl Scissors with the lobbying group Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future says that means consumers would pay the same increase they would anyway, but spread over time.

“The revenue requirement per each rate class with ISRS or without ISRS will not vary … zero difference. So the only difference between the ISRS model and the current rate making procedure is timing.”

Consultant Morris Brubaker testified against the proposal, saying it would let electric utilities spend more money in less time than they can now.

“If you forever … or for a long period of time spend more money faster, your rates are always going to be higher than they would have been if you hadn’t accelerated those investments.”

Backers and opponents also offer differing opinions of whether the proposal would create jobs, or cause job losses.

Vice President with the Analysis Group, Ajay Jyoti, testified that higher electricity prices generally are associated to job losses.

He says, “In fact a 10% increase in electricity prices will result in over 60,000 jobs lost in the state of Missouri alone.”

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane) says it will create jobs now and in the future. She was joined in that claim by former Ironworkers union president Joe Hunt and St. Louis Labor Council President Bob Soutier.

After over three hours of testimony on Wednesday the hearing was suspended and will resume next Wednesday.

Utilities testify on cyber security to the Public Service Commission

November 27, 2012 By Mike Lear

The Public Service Commission is continuing its work to make sure that the state’s electric utilities are ready for a cyber security attack. It has held a hearing with representatives of Ameren, Kansas City Power and Light, Empire District Electric after collecting written testimony from them as well.

Public Service Commissioner Terry Jarrett

Commissioner Terry Jarrett says the Commission wants to know that Missouri’s power grid is protected from cyber attacks and that those companies are prepared to respond to such incidents. He says Missouri utilities haven’t been tested.

“Our utilities have become very good at recovering from natural disasters such as ice storms and tornadoes. Fortunately we’ve never had a large-scale cyber attack so we don’t know what that’s going to look like if one happens, so all we can do right now is plan for and make sure that our utilities are planning for such contingencies.”

He says so far, it looks as though those utilities are.

“I’m very heartened by what I heard. The big thing is that they utilities have placed a big priority on this. The boards of directors of all the utilities place a priority on this and as long as that is occurring, we should be okay.”

The Commission will study and discuss the testimony and decide whether any further action will take place.

“It could be a collaborative type of process where we will just work with the utilities informally, or if we feel that a more formal rule making is necessary we’ll take a look at that as well. Sort of all options are on the table right now.”

Decision could come soon on grant for small nuclear reactors (AUDIO)

July 19, 2012 By Mike Lear

Ameren, Westinghouse and the state’s utilities are awaiting word on an application for a federal grant to help support their project to create small, modular nuclear reactors.

State Senator Mike Kehoe (R-Jefferson City) is in Washington D.C. this morning checking on the status of the application for a grant of $452 million over five years.

“We understand that were three applications submitted from other states that have partnered up with other energy providers, so we’re one of four. We’re gonna find out in the next couple of days … we believe we may be one of three. The rumor is that one of those competitors has been already kinda knocked out of the competition.”

Kehoe says Missouri is in a good position to win out. “Missouri’s package, with the unique alliance we have with all the utility providers together, the great safety story that Callaway provides as a site and the efficiency that Callaway’s provided for nuclear energy over the last almost 30 years, as well as Westinghouse who is a global provider of nuclear energy. When you add all those things together I think our odds are pretty darn good.”

Kehoe says if Missouri’s team gets that grant, the whole state stands to benefit. “It not only provides base load power for our state, it also makes Missouri the hub of that technology, which means it’s an incredible export opportunity to manufacture these products and export them globally right out of central Missouri.”

If Missouri doesn’t get the grant, Kehoe says the “conversation’s not going to go away.”

He says a decision could be announced in the next 30 to 45 days.

AUDIO: Mike Lear interviews Senator Mike Kehoe, 6:27

Inspections urged for Lake of the Ozarks docks

July 11, 2012 By Mike Lear

Authorities at the Lake of the Ozarks are urging property owners on the Lake to have regular inspections done of their docks, particularly for electrical safety.

Three people have been electrocuted at the Lake in the last week and three others were shocked in May but were pulled from the water and survived.

Ameren owns property around the Lake and issues permits for new docks. Shoreline Manager Jeff Green says his company hears about cases of electricity in the water each year, but it’s not what he calls common.

“I think this is a somewhat unusual circumstance that accumulated with a lot of people here at the Lake, enjoying the Lake. It’s a hot summer so we have lots of people here right now. This is a terrible, tragic occurrence.”

Green says those who do feel electricity in the water generally want to swim toward a dock. “That’s probably not the best thing to do because if the dock is energized you actually want to swim away from that dock, and certainly disconnect the power immediately and call one of the local fire districts and have them come out and take a look at it, or a qualified electrician.”

There are six fire protection districts around the Lake that participate in regulations adopted in 2006 of how electrical installations are supposed to be done. Green says those districts can be called to conduct electrical safety inspections as well as electricians.

Green says the only time an electrical safety inspection is required is when a boat dock permit is issued. Once that initial inspection is done, a dock owner could potentially never have another one done, but Green says they should. “It’s each individual dock owner’s responsibility to make sure that they keep their dock electrically safe and that almost demands some kind of inspection.”

See more about electrical safety with docks on Ameren’s website.

PSC appointee anxious to learn more about small nuclear reactor parnership

June 5, 2012 By Mike Lear

A Festus resident that has been re-appointed to the Public Service Commission is looking forward to learning more tomorrow about Missouri’s next big role in the nuclear energy field.

Stephen Stoll (picture courtesy, the Public Service Commission)

Tomorrow is the first meeting of the Public Service Commission since Stephen Stoll was re-appointed. He’s looking forward to a presentation on the agreement between Westinghouse and Ameren to work together to develop and manufacture new Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs).

Stoll says he doesn’t have any preconceived notions about the project. He just wants to learn more about it.

“I’ve found that the process … works very well in that when a utility makes a proposal, they will offer all sorts of evidence and then there’s a rebuttal to the evidence that they offer … and then, a hearing and things that really help to bring out all facets of the issue. So that’s kind of what I’m anxious to get into.”

See our previous story on the Ameren-Westinghouse partnership.

Stoll spent six weeks on the Commission previously. His appointment was one of those withdrawn by the Governor amid objections from the Senate about how appointments were being made. No Senators voiced an objection to Stoll’s appointment in particular.

He says with the Westinghouse-Ameren partnership and in all Commission business, he sees his responsibilities as being the same. “I want to make sure that we continue to have reliability sources of electricity and natural gas and that people in Missouri continue to have a good environment in which people want to invest.”

The weekly meeting of the Public Service Commission is tomorrow at 9:30 at the Governor Office Building in Jefferson City.