Utility company Ameren Missouri has filed an application with the Missouri public service commission (PSC) to construct a natural gas and battery storage facility in the state.
Ameren’s application involves construction an 800MW natural gas energy centre co-located with a 400MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in Jefferson County.
Called the Big Hollow Energy Centre, the project will also assist Ameren Missouri with its recently announced energy storage goals. It plans to have a total capacity of 1,000MW by 2030 and 1,800MW by 2042.
In 2023, the company aimed to procure 800MW of battery storage in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) service area, which represented a US$650 million investment.
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At that time, Ameren Missouri’s integrated resource plan (IRP) indicated that although the utility plans to keep investing in natural gas, as shown by Big Hollow, it is also dedicated to phasing out coal use.
Ameren’s levelised cost of energy (LCOE) modelling also found that battery storage was cheaper than simple cycle gas turbines but not cheaper than baseload combined cycled gas power plants.
Solar and storage installations are expected to decline with the passage of the tax reconciliation bill, and natural gas is still quite popular.
It may be the case that a greater number of energy storage projects are co-located with natural gas generation, which is a better alternative to coal but still represents a slower buildout of renewable energy infrastructure.
Ameren says that the natural gas portion of the project will be designed to deliver energy on the coldest winter days, hottest summer afternoons and to back up the grid when renewable generation is unavailable. The assets will operate independently of one another.
The utility notes that this is a similar use case to its Castle Bluff Energy Centre, an 800MW simple cycle gas facility built at a former coal site.
Ameren already owns the land to be used at Big Hollow and can leverage existing infrastructure and access to transmission lines, the company said.
Additionally, Ameren notes that Big Hollow will provide “significant investment” and jobs to the local community, and with timely regulatory approval, the energy centre will be operational in 2028.
Ajay Arora, senior vice president and chief development officer at Ameren Missouri said of the project:
“It is crucial to have a balanced mix of generation technologies, and equally important to strategically locate them across the region. This approach maximises the energy output from these resources.”
