Ameren Illinois hires 80 for $640 million modernization
Ameren Illinois, which plans to spend $640 million from 2012 to 2021 to modernize its electric infrastructure, has hired more than 80 employees so far to start working on the plan.
The jobs include linemen, repairmen, computer process technicians and software engineers, according to Richard Mark, chairman, president and CEO of Ameren Illinois.
Under the 2011 Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act, Ameren Illinois officials plan to hire 450 new full-time employees over a 10-year period, 130 of them contract workers, and the others permanent Ameren employees, Mark said.
The plan includes upgrading Ameren Illinois’ electric grid with automated sensors and switches and replacing 750,000 old meters with “smart” meters that provide customers with specifics on the costs of electricity at different times during the day. It also includes adding software to meters to pinpoint and reduce outages.
The energy modernization act allows Ameren Illinois to use a more predictable way to set electric rate increases, according to company officials. It is able to increase rates by up to 2 percent a year, according to expenses, with a virtual guarantee of recovering its investment, Mark said.
Ameren Illinois Co. is an electric and gas delivery utility subsidiary of Ameren Corp., which serves 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.
St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. (NYSE: AEE), led by Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Voss, reported a net loss of $143 million on revenue of $1.48 billion in the first quarter of 2013.
It reported a 2012 net loss of $974 million on revenue of $6.83 billion.
-Greta Weiderman
