Dive Brief:

• Ameren Missouri has filed a $135 million, three-year efficiency plan it believes will deliver more than 400,000 MWh of cost-effective energy savings.
• Midwest Energy News notes that the the plan has a budget 8% lower than its previous slate of efficiency measures, and is targeting efficiency goals at about half of current levels.
• The company said the falling price of generation, transmission and tougher federal standards have made it more cost-effective to reduce efficiency targets.

Dive Insight:

The Missouri Energy Efficiency Investment Act (MEEIA) encourages utility investment in efficiency, but Ameren says its programs "are experiencing diminishing returns due to changes in efficiency baselines brought on by increasing Federal appliance standards, declining avoided costs, and reduced savings estimates."

The company has filed its 2016-2018 MEEIA plan, calling for "increased flexibility to make programs more adaptable to changing market conditions." The plan consists of six residential programs and four business programs, largely similar to the programs implemented during its 2013-15 MEEIA program. And the utility noted, "the cost of saving a kWh of energy is generally cheaper than the cost of generating a kWh of energy from a new resource."

But Dan Laurent, Ameren's director of efficiency, told Midwest Energy News that the cost of purchased power has fallen, along with transmission and distribution and other costs. 

“Because we have to justify efficiency as cost-effective, there is much less opportunity," Laurent said.