By Maria Hickey, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Staff members from the Missouri Public Service Commission are in St. Louis observing how Ameren is responding to the power outage.
The PSC regulates utilities in the state.
A few weeks ago the commission's staff released a report on Ameren's response to the July power outages. It recommended the utility step up its tree trimming.
Now the PSC's director of Utility Operations, Warren Wood, says they're assessing the damage and response to the latest outage.
"Obviously, not an acceptable situation for a lot of customers," Wood said. "And what we're looking at today, we're coming back and looking at infrastructure issues specific to circuits, utility poles and we're likely to see some issues with tree trimming as well."
Wood says the report also recommended the commission require utilities to report annually on the inspection and maintenance of infrastructure; tree trimming, and system reliability as well as funding for such programs.
The commission will discuss those recommendations at its next meeting December 27th.