Last fall, after a statewide rate freeze of nine years, Illinois conducted a “reverse auction” in which the state’s two major utilities, Ameren and ComEd, took bids from power generators to buy wholesale electricity for resale to Illinois customers. The resulting new, deregulated rates took effect Jan. 2.

Since rates were unfrozen, rates on average rose by 30 percent to 55 percent around the state.

In today’s Power struggle story, about 120,000 customers in southern Illinois who used to get a special discounted rate for having all-electric homes and businesses, rates have gone up as much as 200 percent higher over…

Today was the first and second of what’s expected to be a dozen public hearings on a rate increase AmerenUE is seeking from the Missouri Public Service Commission.

According to our first story from today’s earlier hearing, “Ameren in July asked the PSC for permission to raise rates for average residential customers by about $6 a month, or 10 percent. The increase for commercial and industrial customers would be larger. The utility serves about 1.2 million electricity customers in Missouri.” (Here’s a link to our later story, with details from the evening hearing, too.)
July, coincidentally, is when a major thunderstorm…

Update, Dec. 13: Ameren’s CEO, Gary Rainwater, hosted a webcast to address media questions about the company’s performance during and after the storm. Highlights: His power was out for a day, too. Plus, tree-trimming won’t solve the problem. Read more here.

In July, over a half-million customers of AmerenUE were without power for days, following a series of summertime storms. Last week, nearly the same number of electric utility customers found themselves “powerless” after a late autumn snow and ice storm coated wires, poles and tree branches with a heavy coat of ice.

Utility workers from the area, and those…

Ameren outage.
Mercifully, I am spared.
We’re cold and weary.

Yes, it’s that time again. After a long, hard week of grim Iraq news, bitter cold, power outages and Senate confirmation hearings — it’s time to lighten things up with another round of Current Events Haiku.

How’s it work? Match your current events comments to the meter of haiku — three lines, five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables. This will be our fourth dive into metered commentary since the debut of Haiku Day on May 5. Our second round was June 15. And our last was nearly two months ago, on Oct….