City Utilities board approves new 20-year power supply plan 

City Utilities of Springfield just updated its power-generating strategy for the next 20 years, addressing ratepayer demand, regulations and carbon emissions. 

The Springfield Board of Public Utilities voted 10-0, with board member Ben Shantz absent, at its Thursday meeting to approve a long-term reference document, called the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan.  In the latest version of the IRP, CU officials said they applied new market forecasts and considered “evolving” requirements by regulators, along with input from stakeholders. 

“The electric industry continues to undergo numerous fundamental and fast-paced changes,” wrote CU President and CEO Dwayne Fulk in a foreword to the IRP that’s posted on the CU website.  

CU officials say the goal of the IRP is to help ensure City Utilities can provide “affordable, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity” to ratepayers over the long term, according to a news release out today. The IRP does this by reviewing CU’s current power generation portfolio and identifying future resources to meet ratepayers’ needs, the release says. 

A key goal with the IRP is to make sure CU can generate enough electricity locally, so the utility can meet demand during peak times, officials said in the release. The 2025 IRP positions CU to generate 80% of the power needed locally over the next 20 years. At yesterday’s board meeting, CU Vice President of Electric Operations Warren Brooks said the plan calls for a minimum of 50% locally generated power now through 2050. 

Among several scenarios, CU staff considered a 100%-local power generation scenario in drawing up the report, Brooks told the CU board. 

“That solution would result in about $40-$70 million of additional cost to the utility,” Brooks said, “therefore to our customers, if we were to have the entire portfolio local.” 

The latest plan recommends CU add new capacity for generating power, including investments in clean energy. Brooks told the board that CU’s recently approved gas turbines and batteries should provide “sufficient capacity” at least until 2038. Additional pipeline infrastructure, either natural gas or hydrogen, will be necessary to implement some aspects of the plan, Brooks said. He added that new efforts like CU’s Adjustable Thermostat program should help with managing demand. 

Officials say the added capacity is needed to meet expectations that the Springfield area’s electricity demand will continue to grow. CU’s projections show electric demand being likely to experience “moderate growth” of 1.1% per year through 2034, according to the release.  

The IRP also outlines a pathway for CU to reduce carbon emissions to the tune of 70% by 2035, reaching net zero by 2050. The plan says that in 2024, CU emitted 2.6 million tons of carbon dioxide. The utility wants to emit no more than 620,000 tons of CO2 in 2035, on a “glide path” to net zero in 2050, the plan says. 

According to the plan, “in the state of Missouri, CU is a leader in renewable energy generation, with approximately 34% of our portfolio as clean energy resources in 2024.” The plan says CU has reduced carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists cite as a key driver of human-caused climate change, by roughly 30% from 2005 baseline levels. 

According to the release, CU continues to diversify its mix of energy sources. While reliance on coal is expected to decline over time, due to improved new technologies and changes in regulations, “coal-fired generation will remain necessary in the short term.”  

The IRP was last updated three years ago, officials said, a typical timeframe to adjust to the quick pace of changes to the industry. 

According to the latest IRP, CU worked with The Energy Authority – a nonprofit based in Florida and Washington state that provides public power utilities with portfolio management services – to develop iterations of the IRP. Along with the IRP approved this week, The Energy Authority assisted CU with the plans issued in 2022, 2019 and 2017.