Illinois Approves Transition to Hourly Pricing for Ameren Customers with Demands 150 kW or Higher

Existing customers at Ameren with peak demands of at least 150 kW and under 400 kW will be moved to hourly default service pricing effective at the end of the April 2014 monthly billing period, after the Illinois Commerce Commission declared those customers to be competitively served.

As first reported by Matters (3/2), Ameren sought a competitive declaration of the 150 kW-400 kW class given that, as required by statute, at least 33% of those customers take service from an alternative retail electric supplier, and at least three alternative retail electric suppliers provide service that is comparable to the available tariffed default service. Customers at and above 400 kW were previously declared to be competitive under statute.

Customers which have been declared to be competitive are no longer eligible for fixed price default service, and must take hourly service if purchasing commodity from the utility.

The competitive declaration for the 150 kW-400 kW class is effective May 1, 2011, but existing customers currently taking fixed price default service will be grandfathered, and will be able to take fixed price default service through April 2014.

New customers in the 150 kW-400 kW class will not be permitted to take fixed price default service after May 1, 2011, and will be defaulted to hourly pricing. Additionally, grandfathered customers who leave default service for competitive supply will lose the ability to take fixed price default service effective May 1, 2011 should they choose to return to utility supply.

Ameren reported that, as of January 2011, it had approximately 3,343 accounts which had a peak demand of at least 150 kW but less than 400 kW. Of these customers, some 2,251, or 67.3%, take supply from an alternative retail electric supplier. Furthermore, Ameren reported that alternative suppliers served 68.5% (387 MW) of these customers' peak load, and 70.2% of their throughput (151,430 MWh), during January 2011.