The energy portion of your Ameren electric bill will double this summer, but those participating in the municipal electric aggregation programs are protected from the soaring rates.
The Director of Communications and Public Relations for Ameren Illinois Tucker Kennedy says the operator of the power grid MISO received the much higher bids for electricity beginning June 1st.
“They will essentially double the supplied owner of that bill. So someone who was paying around $49 last year will be paying around $89 this year. Just to be clear, Ameren Illinois does not produce energy, we are a delivery only company. And those supply cost, which is purchased for us, we pass that along to our customers one-to-one cost with no markup.”
Kennedy says a “perfect storm” is resulting in the big cost increase including inflation, supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine as well as clean air legislation.
“We have started to make this transition as a state and nation away from fossil fuel to renewable energy. We’ve done at a pretty fast pace, and what the federal grid operators are saying because of that it’s causing a shortage in the amount of capacity for the energy for what we would need potentially on the hottest days which is one factor driving the prices.”
There is some good news though. Ameren customers in Salem, Centralia, Mt. Vernon and many smaller communities are covered by municipal aggregation agreements. Unless you opted out, you are covered by an aggregation agreement through the Southern Illinois Aggregation Partnership or Goode Energy. The
Southern Illinois Aggregation Partnership power purchase agreement has the price locked in through December 2023.
Ameren customers can contact Homefield Energy, which provides the power through the aggregation agreements, to verify if their home is currently enrolled in their municipality’s aggregation program. The phone number is 866-694-1262. Ameren still delivers the power to your home regardless of your energy supplier.
Tri-County Electric customers ARE NOT part of the aggregation program.
