Ameren Wants to Add Solar and Battery Storage — Here’s How Local Ratepayers Can Weigh In

If you get your electric bill from Ameren Missouri, there’s a case working its way through the state’s utility regulator right now that’s worth five minutes of your attention — even though none of the public hearings are being held anywhere near us.

Ameren Missouri has asked the Missouri Public Service Commission for a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity — case number EA-2026-0183 — to build three battery energy storage projects and two solar generation facilities, plus the transmission lines needed to connect them to the grid, according to the PSC’s press release. Ameren Missouri serves electric customers across a large stretch of the state, including here in our area, so shifts in how the company generates and stores power are the kind of thing that eventually shows up on a bill or a reliability report.

The PSC has scheduled four public hearings on the request:

• Tuesday, July 28, noon — Pike-Lincoln Technical Center, Eolia, Mo.
• Tuesday, July 28, 6 p.m. — YMCA Y Café, Vandalia, Mo.
• Wednesday, July 29, 6 p.m. — virtual, via WebEx or phone
• Thursday, July 30, 6 p.m. — Fraternal Order of Eagles, Advance, Mo.

Here’s the honest local angle: none of those in-person locations are anywhere close to Rocheport, New Franklin, or the rest of Howard, Boone, and Cooper counties — Eolia and Vandalia sit up in Pike and Lincoln counties, and Advance is down in Stoddard County, in the state’s southeastern corner. They’re almost certainly sited near where the actual solar and battery projects would be built, not near Ameren’s broader customer base. So if you want to have a say without a multi-hour drive, your best options are the Wednesday, July 29 virtual hearing or a written comment.

The PSC’s release notes that anyone planning to join the virtual hearing should register in advance, before 5 p.m. on the day of the hearing. Written comments can be submitted to the Commission and are made part of the case record for EA-2026-0183; the case docket, once accessible through the PSC’s EFIS system, is the place to track filings as the case moves forward.

We’ll keep an eye on this one as it develops, since a public utility case is exactly the kind of thing that’s easy to miss until it shows up as a rate change.