Ameren Missouri files plan to continue working to build a stronger, reliable energy grid
Smart Energy Plan upgrades helped limit severe weather impacts and speed restoration during historic 2025 storm season
Ameren Missouri recently filed its updated Smart Energy Plan with the Missouri Public Service Commission. The filing highlights how Missourians are benefiting from the company's investments in customer reliability and outlines a five-year strategy to advance a stronger, more resilient energy grid. In 2025, upgrades deployed through the Smart Energy Plan automatically prevented 160,000 customer outages during major storms.
As a part of the Smart Energy Plan, Ameren Missouri crews work to storm-harden the energy grid in St. Louis County by setting a composite power pole.
"Our strategic grid upgrades through the Smart Energy Plan are focused on delivering enhanced reliability and value for customers," said Michael Moehn, group president, Ameren Utilities of Ameren Corporation. "We're committed to making investments that bolster the grid and protect families and businesses from outages."
The Smart Energy Plan provides direct customer benefits by enabling Ameren Missouri to upgrade aging energy grid infrastructure, including poles, wires and substations. These improvements support greater resilience against extreme weather and faster restoration during outages.
"The benefits of these upgrades can be immediate and impactful, as we saw during major storm events in 2025," said Tim Lafser, senior vice president, Energy Delivery and Operations Technical Services at Ameren Missouri. "For example, when a dozen tornadoes touched down in our region on March 14, our investments automatically prevented 59,000 outages while our crews worked tirelessly to restore all affected customers."
Smart Energy Plan investments through 2025 include:
Outage Prevention: More than 2,000 smart switches now monitor the grid 24/7, automatically isolating outages and rerouting power. These devices have prevented more than 330,000 customer outages over the past five years.
Storm Hardening: Ameren Missouri added 850 composite poles in 2025. These are stronger than wooden power poles and help speed restoration by preventing cascading damage to overhead lines. The company has storm hardened more than 300 miles of power lines across Missouri since the start of the Smart Energy Plan.
Substation Upgrades: Nearly 150 substations have been modernized through the Smart Energy Plan, including upgrades to some of the company's oldest equipment to improve reliability and increase capacity.
Ameren Missouri is also investing in a reliable and balanced mix of energy resources to power the needs of all its customers. This approach includes building new generation facilities and upgrading existing assets.
"Developing a diverse portfolio of dependable, on-demand power along with lowest-cost renewables and battery storage is critical to meeting our customers' needs," said Ajay Arora, senior vice president and chief development officer for Ameren Missouri. "This approach provides excellent value for our customers and ensures reliability, regardless of weather conditions or time of day."
In 2025, the company carried out more than 100 projects to support upgrades to its existing generation fleet. Investments in reliable generation through the Smart Energy Plan include:
Beginning construction at the Castle Bluff Energy Center, a quick-start, 800-megawatt (MW) natural gas facility designed to support the grid during times of high demand.
Replacement of two 90-year-old turbines at the Osage Energy Center to improve the efficiency of hydroelectric generation at Bagnell Dam.
Additionally, Ameren Missouri is working to keep costs as low as possible. As a result, the company's rates are consistently among the lowest in the nation and remain approximately 27% below Midwest and national averages, according to the latest analysis from the Edison Electric Institute. To view Ameren Missouri's 2025 Smart Energy Plan progress report, please click here.