Ameren Missouri Moves Forward with Plans to Decarbonize its Generation

Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Plans by electric utility Ameren Missouri (St. Louis, Missouri), a unit of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) (St. Louis, Missouri), to clean and decarbonize its generation portfolio took a big step forward late last month when Missouri utility regulators voted to approve the company's plan to acquire a 400-megawatt (MW) windfarm once it is built by a third-party developer. The High Prairie Windfarm, scheduled to be built in Schuyler County, Missouri, is expected to be the Show Me State's largest windfarm when it begins operating in late 2020. The facility, being developed TG High Prairie LLC (Queen City, Missouri), has a total investment value (TIV) of about $600 million.

In a separate transaction announced October 22, Ameren Missouri said it plans to acquire a 157-MW windfarm being developed by EDF Renewables North America (San Diego, California), a unit of Electricite de France SA (Paris, France). The proposed project, the Brickyard Hill Windfarm, is scheduled to begin construction in late 2019 and be operating by late 2020. This project is valued at about $350 million.

More windfarm announcements are expected. In an integrated resource plan (IRP) released last year, Ameren Missouri committed to investing about $1 billion to add 700 MW of windpower in and around Missouri by the end of 2020. An additional 100 MW of solar power is expected to come online in three stages by 2025. No cost estimate is available for the planned addition of solar generation.

The utility also plans to retire about half of its coal-fired generation over the next 18 years. According to the IRP, Ameren Missouri plans to retire:

• 594 MW of coal- and gas-fired generation at the Meramec Energy Center by the end of 2022
• 970 MW of coal-fired generation at the Sioux Energy Center by the end of 2033
• 1,186 MW of coal-fired generation at the Labadie Energy Center by the end of 2036

By 2030, these changes to its generation portfolio will cut the utility carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions 35% compared to its emissions in 2005. By 2040, those emissions reductions are expected to be 40% less than 2005 emissions. And by 2050, CO2 emissions are expected to be 80% less than what they were in 2005.

Click on the image at right to see a chart on Ameren Missouri's planned CO2 emissions reductions to 2050. (Source: Ameren)

Planned changes in the utility's generation portfolio also would lower emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2).

Click on the image at right to see a chart on Ameren Missouri's planned reduction of NOx and SO2 emissions to 2050. (Source: Ameren)

The changes in the IRP also would dramatically shift the utility's electric generation capacity and actual electricity generated. As a percentage of electricity generated, coal is planned to fall from 70% in 2016 to 39% in 2040 before being zeroed out by 2050. Renewables would rise from 5% in 2016 to 15% in 2040. Measured by generation capacity, coal will fall from 50% in 2016 to 27% in 2040 and zero by 2050.

Click on the image at right to see how Ameren Missouri's generation capacity and electric generation mixes will change as the 2017 IRP in implemented. (Source: Ameren)

To achieve its goal of decarbonizing its fuel mix, one of the utility's corporate siblings will build new transmission lines, both to bring renewable energy to customers as well as to reinforce the electric grid.

Earlier this year, Ameren Missouri's transmission sibling, Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois, began construction of the Mark Twain Transmission Project, a 96-mile, 345 kilovolt (kV) transmission line and substation to be built in northeast Missouri that would bolster energy reliability for the region. This $209 million umbrella project, which has several separate components, is expected to be operating by the end of next year. A second and more ambitious umbrella transmission project, the 58-mile, 345-kV Green Power Express Line, is slated to begin construction my mid-2020 and be operating by the summer of 2023. That umbrella project is valued at about $1.3 billion.

On October 22, after announcing plans to acquire the 157-MW Brickyard Hill Windfarm, Michael Moehn, president of Ameren Missouri, said, "Our transition to cleaner forms of generation is building momentum. Investing in renewable generation, with the majority in Missouri, benefits our customers and the communities we serve by keeping rates steady and increasing economic activity."

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