Local hearings scheduled for Ameren rate case

Friday, July 20, 2012

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri utility regulators have scheduled local public hearings over an electric rate increase requested by Ameren Missouri.

Hearings Thursday will be at noon at Harris-Stowe State University and at 6 p.m. at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Later hearings also have been scheduled in numerous communities served by St. Louis-based Ameren, including Jefferson City, St. Charles, Cape Girardeau and Kirksville.

Formal evidentiary hearings in the rate case are scheduled to start Sept. 24 in Jefferson City.

Ameren Missouri in February asked for a 14.6 percent, or $376 million, electric rate increase. The power company says the rate increase is needed to pay for work to reduce outages, environmental and infrastructure upgrades and to offset higher fuel costs. It has 1.2 million customers mostly in central and eastern Missouri.

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spelchek 11 months ago

Right in the middle of one of the hottest summers with drought conditions on record. Hey Ameren, you see this open bleeding gash called my wallet, just take that mixture of salt and lemon juice and pour it on there. Oh, and enjoy yourself while you're at it. Lastly, thanks for deciding how Missouri's state workers were going to spend their long awaited 2% increase. Seriously, thanks for nothing. I'll go buy a smaller belt to tighten (if I can squeeze it in my budget).

LuckNLove 11 months ago

Would it be bad to ask all our local companies like, Target, Khols, Wal-Mart, and Menards to help the community out by installing solar panels on the roofs of their building to subsidize electricity for the community? What if the high school and elementary schools put in the panels? Wouldn’t we, as a community, be saving lots of money? The schools hardly use electricity in the summers so all the electricity would be powered back into the grid.

JCLifer 11 months ago

How high do the rates have to go before they get going on building the expansion onto Callaway nuke plant?

Get going now! Interest rates are low. High unemployment guarantees cheap plentiful labor. Building materials are cheap now with the recession.

What are they waiting for? GIT-R-DONE!

Sequoia 11 months ago

Dude, if you think rates are high now, wait unitl we're paying for a new nuke plant. Do you have any idea how much that costs? Your rates will go through the roof if we have to pay for a new nuke plant.

A new nuke plant is the MOST expensive option on the table. If we're lucky and the regulators are smart, energy efficiency and natural gas will give us a bridge to dispersed generation. LuckNLove is right on target: turn our buildings into power plants.

JCLifer 11 months ago

A new nuke plant will be a hell of a lot cheaper to build right now than it will be if the economy ever gets going and interest rates go to 10%. You want to pay a little now, or a whole bunch in a few years?

If solar power were economically feasible, we would be doing it alread. Nuklier is the only way to go right now unless the EPA ninnies can back off on the coal plant regulations.

jpfelix 11 months ago

"Nuklier"? I would at least expect the phonetic spelling of "nuculer" as that is the typical pronunciation of "nuclear" that comes with a lack of education.

Why do the regulators have to back down? Why can't industry improve/upgrade with better technologies over 50+ years?

John 11 months ago

It has nothing to do with education . . . Jimmy Carter, a nuclear engineer, and a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, pronounces the word as "nucular."

dokeus6 11 months ago

Oh that would cost waaaaaaaaayyy too much money for that to happen. Then Grace would complain because it would cost those precious business too much money which in turn puts them out of business. We can't have that.

geekydee 11 months ago

Should have thought about that before we denied Ameren the rate increase to prefund it, maybe even have got some cost concessions while prefunding? Good thing we saved all that money...

JCLifer 11 months ago

Nuke plants will never be cheaper to build than they are right now.

Sequoia 11 months ago

But nukes are still the most expensive option Ameren has to meet its forecasted requirements, no matter what interest rates are. A "cheap" nuke plant is still, by far, the MOST expensive energy option.

You're just trying to tweak "liberals" by advocating something that liberals hate. But it is actually the worst option. You're letting your ideology drive your policy analysis, and, as usual, policital posturing is a recipie for bad policy.

Natural gas is actually the power source of the short-term future.

For the cost of a new power plant, Ameren could lease thousands of roofs in St. Louis and install solar and wind generation. That's a little pie in the sky at this exact moment, but it is the future.

LuckNLove 11 months ago

You are right Sequoia... Nuclear energy is an expensive investment. Personally, I don't want Ameren installing the panels. I would like to see it split between the business owners and community a little bit more and the cost for all users would ‘hopefully’ diminish if Ameren - a non-monopoly because it is a utility - didn't control all the power. But if Ameren is willing to do it, I’d accept that too!

Yes to others, it will be more expensive to build in the future but isn't anything purchased in the future more expensive from an economic point of view. A car COULD cost more; a house COULD cost more, etc... until it collapses of course.

JCLifer 11 months ago

Engineering economists calculate net present value for evaluating projects to evaluate alternatives for constructing now or in the future. It isn't that hard, and with the present economic recession/depression, it is very easy to see that building a plant NOW will be much cheaper than when the economy is moving along and interest rates and inflation are taking off.

Just from a labor availability standpoint, there will never be as cheap and plentifu labor available as there is today. Over 10,000 baby boomers are retiring each day in the US, and over the past three decades our schools have dramtically dropped teaching technical skills and now they are trying to send everyone to college to be an engineer, scientist, or physician. There will soon be severe shortages of technical-level skilled workers to do the work, and their wages will rise dramatically due to the reduced supply.

We are clearly very dumb to not be building the additional nuclear capacity that we will need. Our coal plants are being strangled by environmental regulations and many of them are nearing the end of their lifespan. Puitting our "hope" in ultra-expensive solar panel installations on WalMarts and Targets is quite ignorant thinking. Anyone who knows the construction requirements, space needed to generate ample kwattage, and maintenance costs for solar panels knows this is very impossible. We might as well try to travel to Mars in a little red wagon.

Sequoia 11 months ago

It is not impossible. It is happening.

Google "net zero energy buildings." The technology is not perfect yet, but it is happening.

Here's an example in Kansas City:

kcenergy.org/projectlivingproof.aspx

Certainly, your argument about how it would be cheaper to build a new nuke plant now instead of later would also apply to dispersed generation. Dispersed generation projects would provide many more long-term jobs than a nuke plant. Take a tour of a big plant sometime... once they are built, they pretty much run themselves. Big power plants don't create a lot of long-term jobs.

JCLifer 11 months ago

It is a good thing that big plants do not create a lot of jobs. The severe shortages of technicians and skilled trades laborers that we will face in the next decade will make it nearly impossible to find people to work in these places.

You may want to ask some more questions about ROI for your net zero energy buildings. Yes, it can be done, but if it were economically feasible to do so, every new building would be built this way.

Sequoia 11 months ago

Well, by your logic, the fact that we're not doing something is proof it can never be done!

Yes, there is a tipping point to dispersed generation. Getting past that tipping point will require public-private partnerships and the will to move forward. There will always be naysayers, but naysayers didn't build this country. Visionaries did. But make no mistake, it is the future. U.S. companies will either be selling this technology, or buying it.

JCLifer 11 months ago

"Well, by your logic, the fact that we're not doing something is proof it can never be done!"

Wrong again. just because it is not economically feasible today doesn't mean it won't be tomorrow. New technology, increased prices of alternatives, government regulation, social opinion, etc. all play a huge part of whether it will be feasible in the future.

For sure, our country needs to be investing in research and development. The very expensive Space Race of the 60s-70s gave us access to many profitable technologies and materials that never existed before. We need to be encouraging our students to pursue technical careers. We need to train our students on technology.

You are right that the present road we are on is going to be very painful- we will either be selling technology or purchasing technology, and the road we are on is taking us to be a purchaser.

Sitting wround doing nothing is not the answer. We need to be building increased capacity now when it is cheap, and we also need to be advancing other technologies. Doing nothing means we are dying.

John 11 months ago

Do any of you who are touting solar panels have ANY clue as to how much space is needed for enough panels to provide what you are looking for? Do any of you have ANY clue as to how much maintenance is required?

The successful solar arrays are in very dry climates with no, or little, danger of hail, snow, or lightning. In a dirty or smog environment, the efficiency of such an array would require constant cleaning. Any hail would likely destroy many of the panels.

Natural gas is an alternative but is not nearly as efficient because of BTU availability. Nuclear power is the most efficient power source available to us at this time and with the present technology.

While we need to be developing other sources . . . . it will take decades to develop a source to replace our present technology.

Sequoia 11 months ago

That's why dispersed generation is the key. You're right... a "solar power plant," a big field of solar panels, doesn't work. "Dispersed generation" means that solar panels and wind capture are put on roofs (or south-facing walls, to minimize hail damage), which has the added bonus of reducing power lost to transmission over power lines. Coastal cities can caputre tide and wave energy. Electric cars collectively serve as a giant national battery for storage. Smart-grid technology allows utilities to move power from where it is generated and stored to where it is needed in real time. Energy-efficient technology can reduce demand. It sounds strange, because it is so different from what we're used to. But it is the future.

Certainly, more solar generation and electric cars will decrease smog and dirty air!

No power source is perfect. My point is that a new nuclear plant will make your rates go up much more than ANY other option.

JCLifer 11 months ago

Wrong. This is very uninformed logic.

JCLifer 11 months ago

Nuclear is quite a bit cheaper than solar photovoltaic, however, coal is still the king of cheap power generation.

tinyurl.com/6m7u46m

tinyurl.com/7n4dhyx

spelchek 11 months ago

I get my electricity from hugs and rainbows. Then I sell it back to the grid as hope and change.

cynrb1955 11 months ago

My idea: Have some of the CEO's & share holders give back a little bit of those big salaries that are paid every year!! Every year they get millions & we the customers have to pay for it!! Maybe Ameren should consider tightening their belts a bit. If we have financial problems, try asking them for a little help! A few days later you'll see the man with the little hat at your meter turning it off!! It's time to take a stand against these carpetbaggers & stop them right now!

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