Missouri

Summary Missouri has historically had limited energy efficiency programs in place for utility customers. While fundamental rules have been in place since the early 1990s for integrated resource planning (IRP) and demand-side management (DSM), such rules have not yielded significant levels of utility spending on DSM programs to date.    Dramatic changes are underway that will greatly increase the funding and availability of energy efficiency programs in Missouri. There is a renewed emphasis on energy efficiency, driven by rising energy costs and related concerns. Recent legislation passed in August 2009 calls for the Commission to ensure financial incentives are aligned for utilities to conduct energy efficiency programs. Spending on energy efficiency by two of Missouri's largest utilities is expected to total roughly $35 million in 2009. Statewide total spending on programs in 2007 was about $1.3 million, saving 3,976 MWh, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Missouri has historically had limited energy efficiency programs in place for utility customers. While fundamental rules have been in place since 1993 for integrated resource planning and demand-side management, such rules have not yielded significant levels of utility spending on DSM programs to date. With the advent of greater competition in electric markets in the late 1990s, the utilities requested and were granted suspension of the rules. Some planning activities still occurred at the utilities and the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC). A limited slate of demand-side resources were used, mostly load management and low-income programs.

With the economic and environmental concerns of the current decade, these existing rules for integrated resource planning are the foundation for significant changes underway in Missouri to increase funding and implementation of customer energy efficiency programs. Motivated by rising energy costs and related concerns with the supply and delivery of energy, Governor Matt Blunt established an Energy Task Force in December 2005 to develop policy recommendations. The Task Force issued an "Action Plan" in 2006 that includes recommendations for a number of policies that support greater levels of utility energy efficiency program spending and activity, including a call "to review and revise the PSC's Integrated Planning Rules, as necessary, to ensure that cost-effective energy efficiency, conservation and verifiable demand response programs are given the same consideration as supply-side resource options."

"Be Energy Efficient" is a recent initiative led by the PSC and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Energy Center with support from utilities. The program serves primarily as an educational tool.

Missouri utilities such as AmerenUE have begun implementing a portfolio of residential and commercial energy efficiency programs. The spending and savings data for these programs have yet to be released by the Energy Information Administration, but will surely eclipse the 2007 figure of 3,976 MWh.

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Major changes are underway that will greatly increase funding and availability of energy efficiency programs in Missouri. Recently signed by the Governor in August 2009, SB 376 calls for timely cost-recovery for utilities investing in energy efficiency. According to the Energy Information Administration, Missouri utilities spent $1.3 million on energy efficiency in 2007.

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None in place or proposed.

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SB 376 calls for the Commission to ensure that utility financial incentives are aligned with helping customers use energy more efficiently and in a manner that sustains or enhances utility customers' incentives to use energy more efficiently. One utility, Atmos, has been granted a straight-fixed-variable rate structure (Case GR-2007-0003).

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SB 376 calls for the Commission to provide timely earnings opportunities associated with cost-effective, measurable, and verifiable efficiency savings.

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Missouri established rules in 1993 governing and requiring integrated resource planning. The rules include analysis of demand-side resources. SB 376 also establishes that the policy of the state is to value demand-side investments equal to traditional investments in supply and delivery.

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• Missouri Public Service Commission
• Missouri Energy Task Force Action Plan
• Electric utility resource planning rules
• Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency
• Be Energy Efficient
• SB 376

Last Updated 10/19/2009

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