Ameren Illinois electricity customers to get small rebate
Electricity customers who receive their energy supply through Ameren Illinois are set to see a little bit of relief after a recent price spike.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which operates the electricity grid in southern and central Illinois, has agreed to give an $84 million refund to Ameren Illinois, according to electric utility.
The typical residential customer is set to save about $2 a month because of the credit, Ameren said.
An electricity supply price increase, of about $11 a month for the customer that uses 10,000 kwh of energy a year, went into effect on June 1 after a capacity auction that resulted in a price of $150 per megawatt day for southern and central Illinois.
MISO’s other zones had prices of $3.50 per megawatt day.
“Since the auction results were announced, we have been in discussions with MISO officials to explore any available avenue to provide our customers with relief from this unexpected surge in capacity prices,” said Richard Mark, president of Ameren Illinois.
Ameren Illinois also has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for answers about the recent spike. Ameren filed intervening comments to the complaints made by the Illinois Attorney General’s office, Public Citizens, Inc., and Southwestern Electric Cooperative, who have asserted the MISO auction results resulted in unjust and unreasonable capacity prices for utility customers in southern and central Illinois.
Ameren shared the concerns, and sought review of the market rules that will be utilized in future capacity auctions.
“This is about ensuring that our customers pay a fair price for electricity supply today while putting in place safeguards to make sure that a spike in capacity costs does not occur again,” Mark said.
Ameren provides electricity supply without any markup.
MISO didn’t immediately comment on Ameren’s FERC filing.
This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Ameren Illinois electricity customers to get small rebate."