Ameren Seeks OK for New Katy Substation Near Columbia

Ameren Missouri wants to build a new electric substation just southwest of Columbia, on land the utility already owns near the Katy Trail, as part of a push to keep the regional power grid reliable while demand climbs across central Missouri.

The utility filed an application with the Missouri Public Service Commission on Oct. 16 for a certificate of convenience and necessity — state permission — to build, own and operate a transmission substation in Boone County. The case is open with the commission’s Office of the Public Counsel and commission staff now reviewing it.

What would the substation actually do?

Ameren project manager Jeana Woodard told KBIA the project is designed to “strengthen the reliability of the transmission system in central Missouri.” Practically, that means splitting an existing transmission line into two separate sections, so that a problem on one section can be isolated instead of knocking out power more broadly. The new substation would also add two extra connection points for future power sources.

The project is part of the regional grid operator MISO’s Transmission Expansion Plan, and Ameren says it’s partly aimed at limiting the length and reach of outages as central Missouri keeps growing. The company is also planning for a lot more electricity demand overall: it expects roughly 5 gigawatts of demand from “large load” customers — AI data centers among them — by 2035, a scale of growth that has already become its own local story. We wrote last week about Columbia residents split over new data center rules, and infrastructure like this substation is part of why utilities are planning ahead for that kind of growth now.

Why name a substation after the Katy Trail?

The “Katy” in the project’s name comes from the nearby Katy Trail, built on the old MKT (Missouri-Kansas-Texas) Railroad corridor that gave the trail its nickname in the first place. It’s the same history behind how the Katy Trail came to be — the rail line that once ran through here is still leaving its mark on the map, this time as a landmark for a power project rather than a recreation trail.

Ameren already owns the land southwest of Columbia where the substation would go, which the company says simplifies the project compared with acquiring a new site.

What happens next?

If the Public Service Commission approves the certificate, Ameren plans to begin construction early next year. The commission is expected to issue a decision by the end of February, according to Ameren. There’s no construction timeline or in-service date confirmed yet beyond that “early next year” target, and nothing in the filing so far addresses construction traffic or access routes near the site.

The case, numbered EA-2027-0009 in the commission’s EFIS system, is public record. Anyone can track its filings and the eventual decision through the PSC’s online case file.