Winter returned with a familiar punch last month as an arctic blast gripped the Ameren Illinois service territory for the second January in a row.
During the stretch of extreme cold, the company’s 12 natural gas storage fields operated at full availability, shielding customers from market price volatility and ensuring gas was there to heat homes and power businesses across central and southern Illinois.
During the coldest period Saturday, Jan. 24, through Monday, Jan. 26, system demand consistently exceeded 1 billion cubic feet – Bcf of natural gas per day. The gas day ending Saturday morning recorded demand from Ameren Illinois customers of approximately 1.27 Bcf, ranking among the company’s top 15 highest single‑day demands ever.
The Ameren Illinois gas system normally delivers about half a billion cubic feet of natural gas on a winter day, and the highest single‑day record is nearly 1.4 billion cubic feet. Even during the recent extreme cold and snow, the Ameren storage fields met all gas needs without any problems.
“Our underground natural gas storage system worked as designed throughout the weekend,” said Brad Kloeppel, senior director of Natural Gas Operations and Technical Services for Ameren Illinois.
“We experienced no system issues, no equipment concerns, and no gas availability limitations for our customers. We are confident that we have an ample supply of gas to meet customer needs as the cold continues”
Storage helped protect Ameren customers from extreme market prices. Ameren Illinois purchases gas in the summer, when prices are generally low, to inject into underground storage and layers in gas purchases needed for winter up to five years in advance. Because of the Ameren Illinois gas hedging portfolio – including on‑system storage, leased pipeline storage and financial hedging, the company was able to greatly reduce the amount of gas purchased at spot market prices as demand increased last weekend.
For the weekend, Ameren Illinois estimates its storage portfolio contributed approximately $28.5 million in customer savings from on‑system storage use and $46 million in total savings when including leased storage and advanced Hedging.
“We strategically use our storage assets during extreme conditions and then look for the most cost-effective opportunities to refill them,” said Kloeppel. “This approach keeps customer costs stable while maintaining strong reliability.”
Patrick Smith Sr., president of Ameren said, “Our employees, especially those working in the field during the cold weather, accomplished the mission of providing safe, reliable and affordable natural gas to our customers on the coldest hour of the coldest day, when they needed it the most.”
For more information about Ameren visit AmerenIllinois.com.
