Reliability in Action: Ameren Missouri's Smart Energy Plan

Creating a more resilient and reliable electric grid for the citizens of the Show-Me State

Spring returns later this month, and with it an increased threat of severe weather. To help prepare for these storms and others, Ameren Missouri works year-round to ensure the electric grid can handle the worst Mother Nature has to offer. Through the Smart Energy Plan, the company is storm-hardening power lines to help prevent outages and installing smart technology to respond faster when they do occur.

The benefits of these reliability-focused upgrades can be seen in the response to Winter Storm Blair. In early January, freezing rain, ice and other hazards impacted customers across Missouri, especially along and south of Interstate 70. While hundreds of line crews braved difficult conditions to restore power, the upgraded infrastructure was also working, as designed, to keep the lights on for customers. This smart technology helped prevent more than 14,000 customer outages in the immediate aftermath of Winter Storm Blair – a nearly 30% reduction in outages.

Ameren Missouri crews work to respond to damaged power lines during Winter Storm Blair.

During the winter storm, Smart Energy Plan upgrades helped prevent extended outages for customers at Lake of the Ozarks. When winter weather caused components of an aging substation to fail, the newly built Four Seasons substation provided the flexibility needed to reroute power.

“The Four Seasons substation is designed to handle the daily needs of nearby residents and provide critical capacity to reroute power for other customers when needed,” said Mitch Ditter, senior manager of Ameren Missouri’s Central Missouri division. “We were able to shorten outage times for more than 1,000 customers by switching them to the newer substation while crews worked to fix the problem.”

Customers also benefited from storm-hardening upgrades designed to better withstand severe weather. This included the replacement of aging wooden power poles and the strategic addition of stronger composite poles. Through the Smart Energy Plan, Ameren Missouri has storm-hardened more than 250 miles of overhead lines across its service territory. As a result, none of those hardened miles of lines experienced an outage during Winter Storm Blair.

To learn more about the benefits of Ameren Missouri's Smart Energy Plan, please visit AmerenMissouri.com/SmartEnergyPlan.