PSC denies Ameren request to drop efficiency rebates
Posted on Nov 04, 2011 in News
By: Jeffrey Tomich
Ameren Missouri recently signaled plans to slash its energy efficiency budget for electricity customers next year, arguing that reducing energy use was shortchanging its shareholders.
But energy efficiency rebates for natural gas customers are staying intact, at least for the next year.
On Wednesday, the Missouri Public Service Commission voted unanimously to deny Ameren’s request to eliminate rebates on energy-saving items available to its 126,000 natural gas customers.
St. Louis-based Ameren agreed at the beginning of the year to fund rebates for an array of natural gas-saving items, from insulation to Energy Star doors, weather stripping and water heaters. The agreement was part of a broader settlement that allowed the utility to boost gas delivery rates by $5.6 million.
But Ameren sought to eliminate many of the most popular rebates soon afterward on grounds that they weren’t cost-effective. The cost of the improvements did not pay off in energy savings, the company argued.
Consumer advocates at the state Office of Public Counsel and Department of Natural Resources balked at the request because the utility had agreed to fund the program through the end of 2012 and later to have a third party evaluate the results.
The PSC ordered Ameren to maintain the natural gas efficiency programs following a hearing last month. The commission said ending the programs prematurely “will undercut the effort to have the agreed-upon usage data necessary to evaluate the programs.”
The agreement that Ameren signed requires the utility to fund the energy efficiency programs for three years at an amount reaching one-half percent of gross operating revenue for expenditures on cost-effective programs.
According to the PSC order, Ameren’s own evidence presented in last month’s hearing showed the utility knew that, using its own tests, some of the rebates weren’t cost-effective at the time it agreed to fund them.
Utility representatives declined to discuss the commission’s decision.
While the PSC will require Ameren to continue funding its gas efficiency program as it had promised, regulators have no similar signed agreement to require the utility to maintain electric efficiency programs.
