The National Hydropower Association (NHA) has honored Ameren Missouri’s Osage Plant at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks with an Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters (OSAW) Award for making innovative efficiency and environmental enhancements at the facility. Ameren Missouri was one of seven organizations receiving this year’s awards, which recognize exceptional programs and practices in the hydropower industry.
The project at Ameren Missouri’s Osage Plant involved modifications, equipment upgrades and innovative new control technologies that increased the plant’s generating capacity by more than 20 percent while improving dissolved oxygen and total dissolved gases in the plant’s discharge to enhance the fishery in the Osage River downstream. The multi-year project was completed in 2010.
“The OSAW awards showcase the hydro industry’s most exciting and creative solutions to fulfilling its responsibilities as stewards of our water resources,” said NHA Executive Director Linda Church Ciocci. “NHA recognized this year’s winners for creating innovative and proven approaches that will raise the entire industry’s performance, as well as fulfilling their regulatory commitments.”
“Most people who work in the hydro industry have a deep rooted interest in our environment and see the beneficial use of producing power with clean, renewable water,” said Philip M. Thompson, superintendent of the Osage Plant. “I am excited about the efficiency improvements made in the Osage control system and with the new turbines, because it allows us to produce more energy with the same amount of water. Additionally, it helps Ameren Missouri keep rates lower.”
# # #
Ameren Missouri has been providing electric and gas service for more than a century, and our electric rates are among the lowest in the nation. We serve 1.2 million electric and 126,000 natural gas customers in central and eastern Missouri. Our mission is to meet their energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally responsible manner. Our service area covers 63 counties and more than 500 communities, including the greater St. Louis area. For more information, visit AmerenMissouri.com.
Contacts: Media Hotline, 1.314.554.2182, MissouriCommunications@ameren.com