Thursday, March 28, 2024

Ameren Illinois continuing major upgrades to region’s energy delivery network

Electrical work
An electric contracting crew works in Vienna to upgrade a portion of power lines in town to improve service reliability for residential and business customers.

Ameren Illinois continues to make electric infrastructure upgrades to improve the reliability and performance of its energy delivery systems for residential and business customers throughout Southern Illinois. The company is investing an additional $4.4 million in 2015 and the improvements will be placed into service by the end of the year.

In Vienna, Ameren Illinois is increasing the capacity of a portion of power lines in town to improve service reliability and capacity for residential and business customers, supplying more consistent residential and Business Electricity, improving energy outages and downtimes. Investment: $360,000. Project should be completed by the end of June.

The projects recently announced are in addition to the $9.3 million in upgrades that Ameren Illinois has made throughout the greater Carbondale-area since 2013.

“We’re excited to implement another step in our long-range plan to improve our electric delivery system in Southern Illinois,” said Eric Kozak, director of Division VI Operations for Ameren Illinois. “The new technology and equipment we’re putting in today will help ensure that we can meet the evolving demands of our business and residential customers in the future.”

Kozak noted that Ameren Illinois field crews and contractors will log more than 20,000 work hours on the projects.

“Since the grid modernization program began in 2012, projects such as the installation of storm-resistant utility poles, outage detection technology, and stronger power lines have resulted in 238,000 fewer electricity service interruptions on average,” said Richard J. Mark, president of Ameren Illinois. “Fewer outages will mean more savings for customers in Southern Illinois.”