What large data centers pay for electricity is not up to further debate in Missouri, at least for now.
The Missouri Public Service Commission on Wednesday denied a request from a consumer group to redo a hearing that set Ameren Missouri’s rates and terms of service for large-load customers, such as data centers.
The Public Service Commission wrote in a filing that the Consumers Council, which advocates for monopoly utility customers, hadn’t demonstrated “sufficient reason to rehear the Commission’s order.”
Ameren Missouri’s rates, known as tariffs, went into effect on Dec. 4. On the same day, the Consumers Council filed a motion for a rehearing, saying the tariffs would not adequately protect existing customers from rate increases that new data centers could bring because of the large amount of power they use.
“In our opinion, the Public Service Commission has gone too far in promoting economic development for these data centers and not protecting other customers,” John Coffman, an attorney for the Consumers Council, told St. Louis Public Radio earlier in December. “Our worry is that under these recent decisions, residential customers, as well as small business customers, might be paying a lot more for energy because of the data center revolution.”
