JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – State Representative Brad Christ is opposing Ameren Missouri’s proposed electric rate increase and asking the Missouri Public Service Commission to examine the costs associated with data centers and other large users of electricity to ensure those costs are not passed on to Missouri’s residential customers.
Ameren Missouri filed a rate case with the Missouri Public Service Commission in June, seeking approximately $343 million in additional annual electric base-rate revenue. The requested increase would raise electric rates by approximately 10 percent, adding about $13 a month, or $156 a year, to the average residential customer’s bill. This request follows a 12 percent increase that took effect in June 2025 and would mark the company’s third rate increase in five years.
“I get the same bill my neighbors do,” Christ, R-St. Louis County, said. “Ameren says these investments are necessary to strengthen the grid and meet growing demand, and some of that work is real. But families in Crestwood, Fenton and across St. Louis County should not absorb another double-digit increase without the Commission going through every line of this request. I’m asking the Commission to use every consumer protection available under the law.”
Ameren’s testimony in the rate case identifies approximately $2.8 million in costs associated with large-load customers and projects approximately $13.4 million in annual revenue from those customers. Based on those projections, large-load customers would generate approximately $10.6 million more in annual revenue than the costs attributed to serving them, including an estimated $5.2 million annual benefit for residential customers.
Christ filed comments with the commission Monday, asking regulators to take a close look at the proposed increase and independently verify those projections before approving any increase.
“This is exactly why we passed Senate Bill 4 last year,” Christ said. “Missouri is seeing the demand for electricity on a scale we have never dealt with before, and we needed protections in place so the cost of serving them would not simply be spread across everybody else’s electric bills. Homeowners should not be asked to finance the infrastructure needed for a massive new data center. Now I want the Commission to verify Ameren’s assumptions, its cost allocations and every dollar of those projected revenues to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Christ supported Senate Bill 4, which made several changes to Missouri’s utility laws addressing electric rates, infrastructure investment and consumer protections. The law also established requirements intended to ensure those customers pay a share of the costs associated with serving their substantial new electricity demands.
Ameren projects significant growth in electricity demand, with electricity sales potentially increasing by more than 60 percent over five years, driven largely by new large-load customers. Christ is asking the commission to examine whether costs for new or accelerated generation needed to serve those customers should be assigned directly to the large-load customer class, a position shared by Missouri’s Office of Public Counsel.
“Data centers can bring investment and jobs to Missouri, but the families already living here shouldn’t get stuck with their electric bill,” Christ said. “The people creating these massive new demands on the electric system should pay their share, and I’m asking the Commission to settle this matter now before the plants are built, not after.”
The Public Service Commission will review the request before determining what, if any, rate increase for Ameren Missouri should be approved. As part of the rate case process, the commission staff will review the company’s financial records and other pertinent information before making recommendations to the commission.