Ameren plans Missouri gas plant with 400-MW battery storage

Ameren’s Missouri utility subsidiary plans to construct an 800-MW simple-cycle gas plant alongside a 400-MW battery storage facility in Jefferson County to meet rising electricity demand, the company announced last month.

The Big Hollow Energy Center is designed to “efficiently meet increased energy demands while ensuring grid resiliency,” Ameren said. The lithium-ion battery will be Ameren’s first first large-scale storage facility, though the utility is planning to have 1 GW of battery storage online by 2030 and 1.8 GW by 2042.

"This is the next step to deliver on our strategy to invest in energy infrastructure for our customers' benefit and provide a balanced generation portfolio," Ameren Missouri President and Chairman Mark Birk said.

The gas plant and battery storage “will operate independently,” leveraging energy infrastructure on land Ameren already owns to reduce construction time and cost, the utility said.

"It is crucial to have a balanced mix of generation technologies and equally important to strategically locate them across the region," said Ajay Arora, senior vice president and chief development officer at Ameren Missouri. "This approach maximizes the energy output from these resources."

The Big Hollow project could be online by 2028, Ameren said, “with timely regulatory approval.”

Ameren in February announced a shift in its preferred resource plan to provide for 1.5 GW of anticipated new energy demand by 2032. Along with storage, Ameren is planning to build 1.6 GW of gas generation resources by 2030, with a total planned addition of 6.1 GW by 2045.

“Building off the success of bringing in nearly two dozen new economic development projects in 2024, Ameren Missouri has construction agreements with potential large load customers for new energy demand,” the utility said.

Ameren also filed an updated Smart Energy Plan with the Missouri Public Service Commission in February. The $16.2 billion, five-year plan calls for investments in grid modernization to improve system reliability and resiliency.