Ameren seeks $185 million in stimulus

Thursday, August 6, 2009, 11:35am CDT | Modified: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 11:39am
Ameren seeks $185 million in stimulus
St. Louis Business Journal - by Kelsey Volkmann

Ameren’s Missouri and Illinois utilities applied this week for $185 million in stimulus money for infrastructure upgrades, smart grid projects and electric vehicles.

AmerenUE applied for $140 million in stimulus funding, and Ameren Illinois Utilities applied for $45 million.

AmerenUE’s application includes the following funding requests for a 50 percent federal match:

• $125 million in projects for modernizing the company's Missouri delivery system.

• $15 million for an operating system that would synthesize and provide data to help better manage AmerenUE’s response to service disruptions.

• Matching funds to purchase two plug-in electric trouble trucks.

Of the total $787 billion federal stimulus package, about $43 billion is targeted for energy projects and energy efficiency. About $4.5 billion of that is targeted to support research and development of the nation’s smart grid, which delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology.

Ameren Illinois Utilities seeks $45 million in stimulus to fund smart grid projects to improve electric service reliability. Its smart grid project will cost $83 million, of which $75 million is eligible for a 50 percent federal match of $37.5 million, the utility said.

Ameren Illinois Utilities also said it is requesting $7.5 million for a $15 million advanced distribution management system, a foundation for the smart grid project that will provide a common interface to monitor, control and manage the electrical distribution system and electrical devices.

Ameren Illinois Utilities said it plans to ask the Illinois Commerce Commission to allow the utility to add a charge to customer bills to recover AIU’s portion of the project costs.

St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. (NYSE: AEE) serves 2.4 million electric customers and 1 million natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.