Ameren Missouri upgrading its power grid, hopes to limit power outages caused by weather - ktvo.com

Ameren Missouri upgrading its power grid, hopes to limit power outages caused by weather

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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — The Heartland is no stranger to severe weather.

With that potential, power outages are also possible.

A Missouri electric company has been working to help make sure people don't go without power for too long.

Ameren Missouri has been replacing utility poles between Kirksville and Brookfield.

Some of the poles are over 70 years old.

Ameren crews are also nearing the completion of upgrading every customer to a smart meter in the Kirksville area.

We spoke with Ameren to learn about how confident they are with these improvements.
"Just in 2023, just last year, we avoided 66,000 customer outages by the work that we've already done and that was just last year," said Ken Worland, director of Ameren's Northeast Missouri Division. "As a result of that, that's 31 million outage minutes that did not occur for our customers."

Next week is Severe Weather Preparedness Week in Missouri.

Tune into KTVO News next week as we cover a variety of topics to have you prepared for when these storms may happen.

Also in the future, we'll have a story about how Ameren determines which renewable energy projects it gets involved with across the Show-Me State.