With all the state and federal incentives available, a big push for installing solar energy is hitting local communities as part of the modernization of the power grid and renewable energy goals. Brian Cuffle, Supervisor, Distribution Design with Ameren Illinois, informs their goal is to continue providing affordable and safe reliable power:
“Our mission is to provide affordable, safe, reliable power to our customers while enabling renewables. We do that on a constant basis. With those incentives, what has happened is we have had a very big growth of renewables within our territory. Our record year was 2022. We had 2,900 customers throughout our territory that put in solar. Last year it broke the record by more than three times, we had almost 10,000 customers put in solar within our territory. We work with the customers, we try to explain to them what it will look like on their bill and all of those pieces with that. With all that, we still remain reliable. Our grid is reliable.”
Cuffle explains Ameren Illinois is a delivery company, not a power company, meaning they do not own power, they simply deliver power to the customers through transmission lines and distribution infrastructure.
