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AmerenUE requests electric rate hike

      AmerenUE has filed a request for a 12.1 percent electric rate increase with the Missouri Public Service Commission.
      The company has sent letters to customers informing them about the request for higher rates, and the Public Service Commission will hold public hearings later this year on the proposal filed Friday.
      The rate increase would provide $251 million in additional annual revenue and would increase the average electric bill by $9 per month, AmerenUE said in a news release. The company said the additional revenue would be used to cover increases in its costs for fuel, transportation and materials and to pay for improvements in reliability. 
       “Specifically, this increase will enable us to put vulnerable power lines underground, trim more trees away from lines, and increase inspections and repairs of power lines and poles,” said Thomas R. Voss, AmerenUE president and chief executive officer.  “Fully 70 percent of the requested increase will go directly into projects at our generating plants, for fuel for those plants and for improvements in our delivery system.  The rest provides indirect support to these critical investments.
      In the letter to customers, Voss said before AmerenUE increased its rates 2 percent in 2007, it had not had a rate increase since 1987.
      Additional information about this electric rate case will be available on the Ameren Web site (www.ameren.com/ueprice). 
      AmerenUE serves approximately 1.2 million electric and 127,000 natural gas customers. Ameren Corporation, through its utility companies, serves approximately 2.4 million electric and nearly one million natural gas customers over 64,500 square miles in Missouri and Illinois.