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Ameren: $70 million increase will go to improve reliability
By Mike Riopell
mike.riopell@lee.net
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SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Commerce Commission on Tuesday heard an Ameren plan to reduce power outages and other reliability issues that may trouble the utility.

As utility companies bargained with lawmakers over electric rates this spring, commissioners asked Ameren to come up with specific plans to improve reliability among its three Illinois divisions.

Ameren’s first public unveiling of those plans came Tuesday. They include a nearly $70 million increase in spending to help prevent and shorten blackouts, from $160 million in 2006 to $229 million this year.

Ameren Illinois President Scott Cisel called the funding increase “significant.” Records show the three Ameren utilities in Illinois rank toward the middle of the pack nationally for their reliability.

“You’ll see that each year we’re making measurable improvement,” Cisel said. “But as we’re making improvement, so is everyone else.”

Two major storms last year compromised power supplies for customers, sometimes for extended periods. Included among Ameren’s plans to deal with major outages are provisions to better communicate with customers about how long they may be without power.

“I just think that the communication thing is so important for people who are out of services,” said Commerce Commission Chairman Charles Box. “They’re just looking for an answer so that they can make the appropriate plans.”

Cisel said those improvements could include better-staffed call centers to deal with customer questions.

Now that Ameren has outlined its goals, commissioners say they plan to check in with the utility’s success rates at the beginning of next year. Commissioner Erin M. O’Connell-Diaz told Ameren the commission staff would “be dogging you out” to make sure the utility makes the effort.

“We are holding ourselves accountable for that execution,” Cisel said.

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Reader comments on this story - 7 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Give Me A Break Please wrote on Aug 18, 2007 9:50 AM:

" Ya right, Ameren worried about maintenance! All Ameren cares about is lining the top fews pockets. I have one question, when are they going to do all this? They havent been concerned about it since well, they carried the CILCO name. Even AES was better than this company. Oh and I hope nobody has a new construction that they need power run to in the next few months because they are behind something like 45 days on that one. All they care about is the money lining not the customer or the safety and reliability of the workers and the power. "

ah hahahaha wrote on Aug 16, 2007 12:37 AM:

" Oh wait, they're serious....Let me laugh harder, AH HAHAHAHAHAHA...... Ameren's big wigs really think we're stupid. I remember before this merger CIPS/IP/CILCO. IT took one heck of a storm to knock out power. Now, someone flips a light switch and the light go out for hours. "

FYI wrote on Aug 15, 2007 7:36 PM:

" Even Walmart is not immune; power was still out at 5:00pm "

Cornbelt~ wrote on Aug 15, 2007 6:51 PM:

" Rocks!!! So glad we have em!! "

recent outage wrote on Aug 15, 2007 4:03 PM:

" There was a four hour outage in my neighborhood on Saturday. I called Ameren and their recorded message said power would be back on at 2 and I saw crews out almost immediately after the power went out. At 2:30 the message said it would be back as soon as possible. at 4:00 the power finally came back on. But what surprised me is that Ameren called to verify that my power was back on. So, while I'm hardly a fan of Ameren (they broke my meter but made me pay $300 to have it fixed), I don't think they are completely lying about TRYING to make things better. "

Yeah, whatever wrote on Aug 15, 2007 2:29 PM:

" Blah, blah, blah..... "

Yeah, wrote on Aug 15, 2007 9:34 AM:

" reliability of their Credit Cards working. This is just a farce to pull the wool over our eyes and to stop us from fighting this continued raping of our pocketbooks. "
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