Utility company Ameren has received the green light to add a new-to-Missouri type of infrastructure to the electric grid: batteries.
The utility is expanding energy storage in the state. It is currently building its first battery facility in Missouri and recently received approval from state regulators for three more.
Last month the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC), the state agency that regulates corporate energy companies, approved Ameren’s plans to build two large-scale solar power plants and three battery systems throughout the state.
Ameren’s battery facilities are the first of their kind approved in the state of Missouri, PSC communications director Sarah Fontaine said.
Ameren’s Director of Renewable Development Scott Wibbenmeyer said the new solar and battery energy storage facilities are needed to replace electricity lost from the company’s recently retired coal plants — and to meet the significant power demand from artificial intelligence data centers.
“They're really critical for us to meet the reliability and energy needs of the state … as we look long term into the growth in the state, the region, and replacing our aging infrastructure … these two facilities work together to really meet that energy need,” he said.
State energy regulators approved the company’s plans to build battery facilities in St. Louis County and Lincoln County and a solar power facility in Stoddard County. Additionally, Ameren is preparing to start construction on a large-scale solar power plant and a battery system to store excess electricity in Audrain County.
The utility’s battery system in Audrain County, named “Huck Finn,” will be built on 22 acres of land. According to the company’s application for the project, the facility will “improve system reliability, support renewable energy integration, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and enhance overall grid stability and flexibility.”
In total, Ameren received approval to build 545 megawatts of battery capacity and 400 megawatts of solar power generation. By some estimates, one megawatt can power for 600 to 1,000 homes.
In a news release, environmental group the Sierra Club praised Ameren for these investments and said “renewable energy remains the cheapest way to generate electricity.”
“The exciting reality of matching solar and wind with storage is that we can generate electricity during the day and use it at night when the sun goes down,” said Jenn DeRose, Missouri campaign representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “We can power our lives safely and affordably with renewable energy and storage, and we need more of these smart investments in our state.”
The Audrain County solar project, named “Tom Sawyer,” will be built on 1,200 acres of agricultural land that Ameren leased or purchased. This will be the company’s second solar farm in Audrain County. It also operates a gas plant in the area.
Wibbenmeyer said Audrain County has been an "absolute great asset” for the company.
Audrain County Commissioner Alan Winders said while the large-scale solar and gas power plants are taxed locally, the battery storage infrastructure is not.
“It will be state assessed and our taxing jurisdictions will realize very little — very, very, very little — revenue from it,” he said. “So that's kind of a point of contention.”
The project didn’t require any local government approval, Winders said, but Ameren representatives met with community leaders to answer questions about the projects, including safety measures for the batteries.
“As we've looked at really any development project, including energy projects, there are three things that we always insist upon,” he said. “One is that the people of the community are protected. Two is that the infrastructure of the county is protected, and three is that they pay their fair share.”
Revenue from the forthcoming large-scale solar power plant will be split among the local taxing jurisdictions, Winders said, with the local Van-Far R-1 School District receiving the largest share.
Battery safety
At public hearings throughout the state, Missourians raised concerns about the safety of the relatively new technology of large-scale batteries. Similar facilities have experienced lithium battery fires that are difficult to put out.
“It's just a technology that we're not familiar with here, so we're trusting that you will do your part in terms of vetting the safety of these sorts of things,” Winders told Ameren officials at a public hearing in Vandalia in July.
Wibbenmeyer said Ameren is working to communicate with the communities where they’re building to “reduce some of that anxiety or fear” around large-scale batteries. He said the company will install large water tanks on the battery facility site for use by local fire departments in an emergency.
“Part of what we do with any project is one: we meet with fire departments. We do full assessments on what is the fire risk for our particular design and then what do the fire workers have? What do they need to meet that response?” Wibbenmeyer said. “How do we blend in our emergency response plan with a county response emergency plan?”
Power for AI
Some state officials, including Geoff Marke, a chief economist for the Office of Public Counsel, the state’s utility consumer advocate, have raised concerns the new power facilities are solely for the benefit of power-hungry AI data centers.
“To be clear, the only reason we need to purchase excess solar generation and complementary battery storage systems at this moment in time and under these inflated prices is to meet the need for projected data center load,” Marke said in testimony before the Missouri Public Service Commission.
When regulated monopolies such as Ameren build power plants and upgrade infrastructure, the company can later come before the Missouri Public Service Commission and ask to recoup the costs of those investments through their customer’s utility bills.
Marke said the cost of power plants built to meet new demand from hyperscale data centers should not be borne by residential electricity customers in Missouri.
“Absent a firm commitment for participating data centers to put up the funds to cover the entire costs of the project, I do not believe it is prudent for Ameren Missouri to move forward with these projects,” he said.
State energy leaders have set goals to produce more than double the amount of power Missouri currently makes — in part to meet the needs of existing and future AI data centers. Repeatedly in his testimony, Marke cautioned against what he called “overbuilding for a wildly unpopular industry that is seemingly bleeding money.”
Ameren predicts electricity demand from data centers “will result in a roughly 60% increase” in the company’s energy needs.
Wibbenmeyer called Marke’s concerns about overbuilding for the AI industry “a fair thing to watch and monitor.” But he said Missouri is in “a really good spot” thanks to lawmakers passing data center regulations last year.
“Our legislators got ahead of this with Senate Bill 4 and really put one of the leading laws into place that requires by law for those data centers to pay for their fair share,” Wibbenmeyer said.
How the costs of Ameren’s new solar power plants and battery storage facilities are spread out among customers will be decided when the company aims to recoup the cost of these investments in a future rate case before the PSC.
