PEORIA, Ill., SPRINGFIELD, Ill. and DECATUR, Ill., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- More than $152 million in rate relief rebates have been provided to electricity customers by the Ameren Illinois utilities in the first phase of their rate relief program.
"The rate relief has been welcomed news to our customers," said Stan Ogden, vice president of Customer Service and Public Relations for the Ameren Illinois utilities. "We have provided across-the-board rebates to all of our residential electricity customers, while providing much needed energy assistance relief to those residential electricity customers hardest hit by last winter's rate increases that resulted from the higher cost of electric supply."
All Ameren Illinois utility electricity customers have been issued rebates in the form of checks or bill credits. Customers with past due amounts of less than 60 days were issued a check by mail. Customers with past due amounts of more than 60 days had a credit applied to their account.
The Ameren Illinois utilities have issued 930,272 checks valued at more than $130 million and 182,863 credits valued at more than $22 million. The last checks were mailed on Oct. 4 and the final credits were applied to bills on Oct. 5.
About 80 percent of Ameren Illinois utility residential electricity customers will realize a cut of 40 percent or more from the expected increase in their 2007 electric bill. Even residential customers using small amounts of electricity will get at least a $100 rebate this year. A typical residential electric customer who doesn't use electric heat will get a rebate of about $130 in 2007. Typical residential customers who heat their homes with electricity should get a credit of about $400 this year. And residential customers who use large amounts of electricity during the winter will get more than $1,000 returned to them this year.
The $480 million four-year rate relief program for Ameren Illinois utility electricity customers is part of the $1-billion statewide rate relief program funded by contributions of approximately $150 million from Ameren affiliated companies and approximately $800 million from Exelon affiliated companies and certain electricity generator companies in the state.
For the remainder of 2007 and throughout 2008 and 2009, credits will be applied to customer accounts to lessen the impact of the higher electric prices in effect. However, the credits will be smaller than the initial credit as the initial credit covered a nine-month, retroactive billing period.
Customers who believe they should have received a check but have not yet received one are asked to contact their Ameren Illinois utility (AmerenCILCO -- 888.672.5252; AmerenCIPS -- 888.789.2477; AmerenIP -- 800.755.5000).
Complete information about the Ameren Illinois utilities' rate relief program is available on the Ameren Web site (http://www.ameren.com/). Go to "Customer News" and select "IL General Assembly Rate Relief Programs" under "Illinois Customers - Rate Relief."
The Ameren Illinois utilities serve 1.2 million electric and more than 800,000 natural gas customers in a 43,700-square-mile area of Central and Southern Illinois.
SOURCE: Ameren
CONTACT: Erica Abbett, +1-314-206-0646, or Natalie Hemmer,
+1-217-424-7541, or Neal Johnson, +1-309-677-5284, or Leigh Morris,
+1-217-535-5228, all of Ameren
Web site: http://www.ameren.com/