Completed Smart Energy Plan Project Benefits Capital City

New smart technology, designed to upgrade the energy grid in downtown Jefferson City, is now in service.

The project, part of Ameren Missouri’s Smart Energy Plan, began last August and was placed into service in mid-January. The Capital City project will reduce power outages and speed restoration for customers in downtown Jefferson City through a self-healing grid that is designed to reduce outage times for some service disruptions from hours to seconds.

"New fiberoptic circuits and switch pads have been installed and connected to the energy grid, so the system is now operational in 'self-healing' mode,” said Ralph "Chip" Webb, director of the Central Missouri Division for Ameren Missouri. "This project substantially upgrades our underground network in downtown Jefferson City, and provides even more reliable energy service to our customers."

Electric service reliability will now improve for businesses in downtown Jefferson City including the Missouri Capitol building, Governor's Mansion, Department of Transportation, Department of Revenue, Jefferson City Municipal Building, Cole County Courthouse, and the Cole County Sheriff’s Department and jail, along with many stores and homes.

Work on the $1.2 million initiative began last summer when crews installed a new switchgear – a power system used to control, protect, and isolate electrical equipment – on Jackson Street. The approximately 2,900-pound switchgear installed at that location is a key part of the energy grid-hardening project.

The project included the installation of eight smart technology switchgears that have the capability to work together to detect and isolate outages and quickly re-route power. The project also includes the addition of innovative fiber optic cables that will allow streamlined system communication with Ameren Missouri's network.

"We recognized that the downtown area had experienced some service interruptions and know that even short, intermittent outages can have an adverse effect on daily lives and local government and business operations. This project will transform the energy grid into a much more robust, smarter and secure system for families and businesses," Webb said.

In addition to the downtown smart technology project, Ameren Missouri will upgrade the Fairgrounds Substation with new energy delivery cables to harden the system and provide improved customer reliability for decades to come. Multiple upgrade projects are also planned throughout Central Missouri and other parts of the state.

The Smart Energy Plan, announced in August 2018, is the largest infrastructure upgrade plan in Ameren Missouri's history and was made possible by the passage of Senate Bill 564 in 2018 by the Missouri General Assembly. The plan includes a $5.3 billion capital investment in more than 2,000 electric projects across Missouri to improve service and provide greater value to customers. It also includes a $1.2 billion investment in wind generation to continue Ameren Missouri's transition to using cleaner, renewable energy sources, which will help to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The projects will also accelerate smart energy infrastructure and create thousands of direct and indirect jobs for Missouri workers.