Missouri Regulators Approve Consumer Protection Plan for Ameren Customers

Jefferson City, Mo. – Today, the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) voted 4-0 to approve a consumer protection plan that governs how data centers, and other power-hungry customers who move into Ameren Missouri’s service territory, pay for electricity. The PSC approved similar rules for Evergy earlier this month. 

Power-hungry data centers are quickly increasing the demand for electricity, and utilities like Ameren are mostly building new gas-burning power plants, and extending the life of coal plants, to meet that demand. Large load tariffs are a tool that enable monopoly utility regulators, like the PSC, to establish rules that require large users of electricity to have financial skin in the game. 

The Sierra Club filed expert testimony in the case advocating for consumer protections and clean energy options. The parties negotiated a settlement with a number of improvements to Ameren’s initial filing, including provisions recommended by Sierra Club: 

1. A decrease in the customer size threshold; from 100 megawatts to 75 megawatts, meaning smaller loads will qualify for the tariff, thus creating more protections for smaller Ameren customers, like families and small businesses.
2. An increase in the minimum contract term; from 10 years + a 5-year load ramp to 12 years + a 5-year load ramp. Increasing the duration of the term of the agreement by two years means more financial skin in the game for the entities adding new demand to the power grid, protecting existing customers.
3. A substantive expansion of the clean energy choice rider; it now allows large load customers – including companies like Google and Meta with climate goals – to help shape Ameren’s integrated resource plan to invest in new renewable energy, storage, and efficiency, and to strengthen the grid and/or replace existing assets, like coal- or gas-burning power plants.
4. A requirement that Ameren evaluate cost allocations for large load customers, allowing existing customers to ensure that they are not paying for costs that should be borne by data center customers.  

The Sierra Club was represented by the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center. 

Statement from Jenn DeRose, Senior Organizing Strategist with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Missouri: 

"Missourians are rightly concerned about the impacts of new data centers on their electric bills and communities, and they deserve protections. How will customers be protected after Ameren spends billions of dollars of our money on new gas-burning power plants if the AI bubble bursts, the utility overbuilds power plants due to AI speculation, or AI data centers become significantly more efficient? This large load tariff is a step in the right direction to protect Missouri ratepayers from the negative impact of data centers on our monthly utility bills, and ensures that speculators aren't driving the utility toward rash decisions. We joined Ameren and tech companies in supporting this tariff because it both protects existing customers, and provides an avenue for tech companies to actually invest in the clean energy they claim they want to power data centers."

Statement from Sarah Rubenstein, Staff Attorney with Great Rivers Environmental Law Center: 

“Today’s decision ensures that customers on both sides of the State of Missouri will be insulated against the costs of supplying energy to data centers that set up shop here. The PSC’s order also creates new opportunities for renewable energy generation, which should help to move the grid toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.”