Description
Ameren is an American power company created December 31, 1997, by the merger of St. Louis, Missouri's Union Electric Company (formerly NYSE: UEP) and the neighboring Central Illinois Public Service Company (CIPSCO Inc. holding, formerly NYSE: CIP) of Springfield, Illinois. It is now a holding company for several power companies and energy companies. The company is based in St. Louis, serving 2.4 million electric, and 900,000 natural gas customers across 64,000 square miles in central and eastern Missouri and the southern four-fifths of Illinois by area.
Service area
As of 2021, Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri distribute electricity and natural gas to most of central and southern Illinois and to much of northern and eastern Missouri. This service area includes the cities of St. Louis and East Saint Louis and surrounding suburbs. It excludes almost all of the Chicago metropolitan area, where about three quarters of Illinois's population resides.
Former manufactured gas plant
A predecessor of Ameren operated a coal gasification plant at the corner of Ash and Orr streets in Columbia, Missouri, which was subsequently demolished. The gasification process contaminated the soil and some groundwater in the area with potentially cancer-causing chemicals. Ameren has since finished removing contaminated soil as of September 2014.
