Power Profile: Travis Hart

Travis Hart, director of Hydroelectric Operations for Ameren Missouri, provides an overview of the Osage Energy Center to members of the Missouri General Assembly.

Some people might find it intimidating for lawmakers to tour their workplace, but for Travis Hart, director of Hydroelectric Operations for Ameren Missouri, showing off Ameren’s three hydroelectric plants is one of his favorite parts of the job.

“It’s great for people to come in and see what we really do and what it takes to keep the lights on. When they walk around in there and are in awe of the place, it really makes you proud of what you do and it makes you proud of your folks,” said Hart. “When you walk into that place every day, these plants just become routine. But when you see how they see it for the first time, you realize that I’m a very blessed man to be able to walk into Bagnell Dam or Taum Sauk or Keokuk to go to work every day.”

Hart describes himself as a “non-traditional guy” when it comes to his career. He began engineering school right out of high school, but when his grandfather had a stroke, Hart came home to help and had to quit school. Afterward, he became a journeyman electrician and began working at Ameren’s Callaway Energy Center.

“I was probably 23 years old, just a brand-new journeyman electrician, walking into the plant for the first time,” said Hart. “They said, ‘Well, your job will be to change a motor and, we’ve got 30 days to do it,’ And I said ‘30 days to change one motor? I mean, how lazy are we?’ They said, ‘See the motor first,’ and they took me to this motor that’s 7,000 horsepower, 18 feet tall and 12 feet across, the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. I didn't know they made electric motors that big, and I said, ‘Ah yeah, that might take a little while.’”

Hart fell in love with the nuclear plant in Callaway County, and his work with Ameren also gave him the opportunity to finish his engineering degree. He held several positions at the nuclear plant before finally working his way to senior reactor operator.

“For a guy like me who likes working on stuff like that, it’s just amazing. Just absolutely amazing. And then to move from there and onto operating the plant was amazing. You’re in there nights and weekends with the crew and getting to know them really well. I mean, they almost become your family. It’s just a really, really good career,” said Hart.

And although Hart loved the work, the long hours and frequent overnights required by his position began to wear on him and his family after almost a decade at the Callaway Energy Center. So, Hart left the nuclear plant and began his career in hydroelectric energy as a power production supervisor at the Osage Energy Center at Lake of the Ozarks.

“I ended up taking a position at Bagnell, and things worked out how they worked out. Hydro is a great place to be. I miss my folks at Callaway, but it ended up being a good decision,” said Hart.

Hart moved up the ranks at the Osage Energy Center and became director of hydroelectric operations in 2022. The position includes maintaining Ameren’s three existing hydroelectric plants, as well as looking forward and planning what comes next in hydroelectric.

According to Hart, Missouri’s hydroelectric future likely won’t come in the form of adding large, expensive new dams, but instead building run-of-river plants and retrofitting existing reservoirs for hydroelectric purposes.

“There's a lot of existing lakes and dams that are already in the United States that aren’t producing power,” said Hart. “You probably don't go build a new Lake of the Ozarks right now, but if there's already a lake that exists that does not have generation capability then it’s just a reservoir. But with enough inflow, you can utilize that for hydroelectric.”

Both existing dams and new hydroelectric facilities offer unique benefits to the state's energy grid, including rapid energy generation.

“We can go from basically shut off and conserving water to full generation in under 10 minutes,” said Hart. “So, when there’s an emergency on the grid, say another plant trips or we have a storm come through and we lose a couple lines, we need to feed power from a different place. Hydro’s got that flexibility to be able to do all of that very quickly and with clean energy. Hydro is the original green energy, and we're really pretty proud of that.”

On top of these benefits, hydroelectric plants also have a long lifespan. The Keokuk Energy Center is 110 years old and still produces enough energy to power 75,000 homes per year.

“We've already proven that we can run these plants for 100 years plus. Osage is 93 years old. Our newest plant is Tam Sauk, which was built in the 60s,” said Hart. “These plants last a long, long time.”

But whatever path hydroelectric power takes in Missouri, Hart credits the success of these plants to the people working there.

“I've got really, really good people. I'm so blessed to have the people I've got working with me,” said Hart. “And we're really proud of the plants. They're in good shape. We take good care of them.”