Ameren Missouri Bets Big on Expensive New Gas
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Supply chain problems driving up new gas turbine prices as solar & storage compete on cost
ST. LOUIS, MO — Amid surging costs for new turbines, Ameren Missouri announced today its plan to build a new 2.1 gigawatt (GW) gas plant in St. Charles County. While the monopoly utility’s press release does not include a cost-estimate, the cost of a similarly sized project in South Carolina recently doubled from $2.5 billion to $5 billion. Meanwhile, a new energy project in Arkansas is estimated to cost $3.5 billion for 1.6GW of solar and 1.9GW of storage, with no state-level incentives, making it cost-competitive with Ameren’s gas plant while providing similar benefits to the grid.
Ameren Missouri is poised to request the use of Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) for this project, which lawmakers enabled via Senate Bill 4. If granted by the Public Service Commission, Ameren will be allowed to increase monthly bills to pay for construction years in advance of the gas plant providing service to customers, like generating electricity. Independent analysis has revealed that CWIP increases the costs of projects and those costs outpace the alleged savings on interest rates. It also remains unclear how much of this project will be paid for by data center customers.
In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Strategist Jenn DeRose released the following statement:
“Solar and storage is cost-competitive compared to new gas plants, and has the distinction of actually being a Missouri-based resource, unlike the gas that has to be fracked and piped here from other states and is susceptible to quick price spikes during extreme weather and global market fluctuations. My other big concern about this project is that Ameren wants customers to pay years in advance for a future service, because independent analysis shows that project costs generally exceed the alleged savings utilities claim and we simply cannot have that during an affordability crisis and yet another pending rate increase.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.
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