Missouri PSC greenlights Ameren's $158M efficiency plan

Dive Brief:

Ameren Missouri customers will receive $425 million in efficiency savings over the next two decades, the company said this week after state regulators signed off on its programs six weeks after the program lapsed, Midwest Energy News reports.
The plan includes 11 programs designed to help Ameren Missouri customers reduce their energy use and save money, including reduced prices on energy efficient lighting and incentives for HVAC upgrades and energy efficient products.
Ameren said the program's three-year energy savings goal is 570,000 MWh, equivalent to the energy used by nearly 45,000 homes.
In October, the Missouri Public Service Commission rejected Ameren's efficiency plan, worried they could not ensure that ratepayers not taking part in the program would also be receiving the benefits.

Dive Insight:

Ameren Missouri has assured regulators that the benefits of its efficiency programs will be wide-ranging, leading the PSC to approve them this week. Late last year, they declined to authorize the utility's efficiency offerings, saying they appeared to benefit only a narrow slice of customers directly participating.

“The plan demonstrates our continued commitment to energy efficiency, which offers a variety of ways for customers to reduce energy consumption and better manage their energy costs,” Dan Laurent, director of energy services for Ameren Missouri, said in a statement. “We’re investing approximately $158 million over three years to offer a comprehensive portfolio of programs for our residential and business customers.”

According to Ameren, its previous cycle of programs ended last year, having topped energy-savings goals by 41%. The utility said it will offer the programs again in the Spring.

Last year the PSC voted 5-0 against the utility's efficiency plan, proposed under the Missouri Energy Efficiency Investment Act. The regulators said the proposal failed to include adequate mechanisms that would verify all ratepayers were benefitting from the programs, nor did the utility have a reliable method of calculating how much energy was saved due to the program.

Now Ameren modified its plan to ensure it will calculate how much revenue it is losing when customers operate more efficiently, while hiring coordinators to work with low-income ratepayers, the news outlet reports.

According to Ameren, it was the first investor-owned utility in Missouri to implement an energy efficiency program under the MEEIA legislation and it "remains the largest and most comprehensive portfolio of programs in Missouri’s history. For the better part of a decade, since 2009, Ameren Missouri has committed to invest more than $375 million to support its 1.2 million customers’ efforts to use energy more efficiently."