Ameren wants nine gas plants, coal until 2042, and $13 more a month

A piñata shaped like a coal plant

Patricia Schuba took a bat to a piñata modeled on the coal plant she lives beside on Saturday, candy dyed to look like coal spilling at the feet of more than 50 marchers outside Ameren▲+0.74% — Ameren, up 0.74 percent today Missouri's St. Louis headquarters ¹. The plan that drew them↗ keeps all four units of Labadie burning until 2042 instead of retiring two in 2036, and adds nine natural gas plants, up from two in the 2023 plan ¹⁷. Schuba says the plant has made her and her neighbors sick; Cindy McFarland, 27 years a Labadie resident, described coal dust in the gutters and a mask for yard work ².

Demand is signed, so the build is real

Ameren↗'s own numbers say the driver is data centers: 2.8 gigawatts of signed large-load agreements by 2030, 40 prospective centers in its territory, and a plan that quietly dropped the net-zero language of the 2020 and 2023 editions ⁶⁷. The gas schedule alone runs 2,100 megawatts of combined-cycle capacity by 2031 and another 2,800 by 2035 ⁶⁹. Columbia, Missouri's whole grid peaks near 290 megawatts, and its substations are already close to capacity ³.

The bill arrives before the plants

The Missouri Public Service Commission, which must approve the plan, is also weighing Ameren's June request for $343 million a year more↗, about 10 percent, roughly $13 a month on a typical residential bill and the third increase in five years ¹⁸. Ameren's testimony counts about $2.8 million of annual cost to serve large loads against $13.4 million of revenue from them, and Rob Dixon, Ameren's vice president of regulatory and legislative affairs, projects $21 million in customer savings over two years ⁷⁸. State Representative Brad Christ has asked the commission to settle the cost question "before the plants are built, not after" ⁸. The spending has started regardless: capex outran operating cash flow in 10 of the past 12 quarters ¹⁰.

Where the load pays first

Two states east the price list is public. AEP Ohio's tariff, in force since July 2025↗, covers data centers from 25 megawatts up, reclaims 100 percent of buildout costs on cancellation or a delay beyond 12 months, and sets an exit fee of 36 months of minimum charges; 5,642 megawatts sit under it with collateral posted, inside 17,861 megawatts contracted through 2035 ⁴. In Kentucky, TeraWulf▼−2.21% — TeraWulf, down 2.21 percent today will pay the financing costs of a 760-megawatt gas plant and fund $100 million of winter bill credits, about $25 a month for a typical household from 2029 ⁵. Missouri's safeguard is thinner on paper: a 75-megawatt threshold on the large-load tariff ³, plus Senate Bill 4, the utility law Governor Mike Kehoe signed in April 2025, which requires large new customers to cover the infrastructure built to serve them ⁸. Neither names a dollar figure.

Ameren's answer, and its gap

Chief Sustainability Officer Gwen Mizell frames running Labadie as "getting the full value from a vehicle you've already paid for," and chief growth officer Ajay Arora calls it one of the country's most affordable plants ¹²⁷. Dixon says Senate Bill 4's safeguards ensure other customers do not bear data centers' costs ⁷. The gap is default: AEP▲+0.96% — AEP, up 0.96 percent today demands collateral because contracted campuses do not always open, and one campus can exceed a city's entire peak load ³⁴.

Whether Missouri publishes dollar terms before the concrete pours

The Kentucky Public Service Commission takes the TeraWulf amendment↗ this year, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is weighing who pays for transmission built for loads that never arrive, with responses from PJM, the regional grid operator, due November 16 ⁴⁵. The tell for Ameren (AEE) holders is whether Missouri publishes dollar terms before concrete pours ⁶. AEP's safeguards are published dollar amounts, collateral and exit fees written into contracts. Ameren's Missouri safeguard so far sets a 75-megawatt threshold and publishes no price ³.