ST. LOUIS — Regional electric utility Ameren said Tuesday that it aims to build two natural gas power plants over the next decade, a revelation that appears to conflict with corporate goals to slash carbon emissions amid a wave of spending on renewable power.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ-based company, in its newly released 20-year plan, said it needs “new on-demand energy sources,†such as natural gas, to boost reliability as its coal plants — which still provide the bulk of generation — approach retirement.
“We need to make sure we can keep the lights on through this whole transition,†said Mark Birk, chairman and president of Ameren Missouri.
Ameren announced three years ago that it would invest billions of dollars in renewable energy projects over two decades to accelerate plans to reduce carbon emissions and retire coal plants. It said then that it aimed to reach “net-zero†carbon emissions by 2050. Two years later, it further hastened that push, to 2045.
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But critics on Tuesday called the proposed natural gas plants “a big concern.â€
James Owen, the executive director of renewable advocacy group Renew Missouri, welcomed the company’s investment in renewables, but said it’s hard to process how the utility can stay true to its carbon-neutral goals while pursuing natural gas.
“We’re having more extreme weather primarily because of the carbon we’re pumping into the air,†he said. “It’s completely contrary in the face of their stated environmental goals.â€
But Ameren leaders said having new “on-demand†power sources are crucial to complement renewables for purposes of reliability. That’s especially true, they said, as they brace for overall electricity demand to rise slightly, thanks to the industrial and transportation sectors becoming increasingly electrified.
And the company said that more extreme weather is also creating high-stakes periods of peak energy use.
“The more diverse mix you have tends to be the best mix,†Birk said Tuesday.
According to the plan released Tuesday, Ameren aims to get one new, 800-megawatt natural gas plant in service by 2027, while the completion of a previously announced, 1,200-megawatt gas plant is now targeted for 2033, instead of 2031. The delay will accommodate the planned 2032 retirement of Ameren’s coal-fired Sioux Energy Center.
Costs and locations of the gas plants are still being determined, Ameren officials said Tuesday. But to get running by 2027, construction on the first plant would need to begin in 2025, they said.
The blueprint outlined by the utility, called an Integrated Resource Plan, is not binding and each step would require approval from state utility regulators.
Critics question the need for natural gas projects. And they have long been skeptical that they will happen at all — even before Tuesday’s expansion of that vision — due to huge expected costs.
Ameren’s new forecast offers other insights on how the utility aims to navigate the next couple decades and accelerate some investments:
The company plans to put $1.3 billion toward 800 megawatts of battery storage projects, half of which would be in service by 2030 — five years sooner than previous targets.
It also shows that Ameren Missouri accelerated its planned additions of renewable energy projects by four years, with 4,700 megawatts of new capacity targeted by 2036 — a potential investment of $9.5 billion.
But the new plan doesn’t speed up closures for the company’s three coal plants. The company’s Labadie Energy Center — the largest coal plant in Missouri, and among the — is set to run the longest, with two of its four units scheduled to retire in 2036, and the others in 2042.
Natural gas isn’t as carbon-intensive as coal, but it’s still a principal fossil fuel that accounts for about 34% of the nation’s energy-related carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Still, Ameren said on Tuesday it intends to meet its carbon-reduction goals:
• It would be retiring far more coal-powered capacity than it would add in “on-demand†resources, like natural gas.
• One of the gas plants won't run constantly, Ameren said — the company envisions it as a “peaker†plant, used mainly when power demand is greatest.
• All types of new generation will help the company run its coal plants less often, the utility said.
• And the company’s carbon-cutting goals should get help from “maturing†technologies — such as energy storage, carbon capture, or hydrogen — that could be paired with the gas plants.
Critics, however, raised more than just climate concerns on Tuesday:
Owen, the Renew Missouri chief, questioned the portrayal of natural gas as a savior for grid reliability, pointing to recent episodes in other states when gas supplies were depleted or literally frozen during extreme weather. He also argued that the large presence of renewables helped the power grid in regions such as Texas and the Southwest ride out an intensely hot summer.
Ashok Gupta, a Kansas City-based energy economist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, agreed that the company faces a critical balancing act in ensuring grid reliability, but argues that peaker gas plants should be seen as a last resort.
“Gas peakers should be the last option — not the first option,†said Gupta.
He would prefer, for instance, that the company invest more heavily in ways to reduce peak power consumption, through programs that target energy efficiency in homes and buildings, or also put more money toward energy storage.
Lastly, there’s the question of how customers might pay for all of Ameren’s new investments — particularly if old facilities, like coal plants, are not promptly retired. The company says federal tax credits for renewables will substantially reduce costs.
But answers about costs will ultimately be in the hands of state utility regulators with oversight of Ameren’s rates.
“It’s a good question why they need all this capacity,†said Owen. “At first blush, I would say they’re building a lot and not retiring things as quickly as they should.â€
Editor's note: This story is updated to provide further detail one one of Ameren's gas plants.