This guide provides an overview of the Power Smart Pricing program. Use the table of contents below to navigate to each section.

For a print-friendly version download the 2012 PSP program guide as a PDF document.

Power Smart Pricing 2012 Program Guide

Welcome to Power Smart Pricing! This guide provides all the program details as well as some advice on how to use Power Smart Pricing to save on your electricity bill and track your results.

CNT Energy

Power Smart Pricing is administered for Ameren Illinois by CNT Energy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people and communities manage their energy costs. Ameren Illinois will continue to supply your power, respond to service calls and issue your bill. CNT Energy will provide personalized information, services and tools to help you manage your electricity costs with the Power Smart Pricing program. For more information on CNT Energy, please visit our website. www.cntenergy.org

A Note from Ameren Illinois

Ameren Illinois is neutral to your electric supply choice and therefore does not recommend one supply option over another. We do fully support and encourage you to explore all of your electric supply options. Regardless of your energy supply choice, our commitment to delivering safe, reliable energy remains unchanged. CNT Energy is the approved administrator of Power Smart Pricing for Ameren Illinois.
www.AmerenIllinois.com

Contents

How to Check Prices
Typical Price Patterns
Track Your Usage and Savings
Understanding Your Bill
Program Details
For More Information

How to Check Prices

Power Smart Pricing uses day-ahead, hourly market electricity prices. Each evening at 5 p.m., the prices for the following day are available:

• Online: www.PowerSmartPricing.org
• Phone: 1-877-655-6028

Price Alerts

To help get the most out of Power Smart Pricing, CNT Energy will contact you between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. by e-mail or telephone (your choice) if any of the next day’s prices will be higher than 9 cents per kWh. This is most likely to occur on hot summer days, but could occur on any day of the year. It is important to keep your prefered contact information up to date so please inform us if there are any changes.

Mobile Tools to Access Price Information

Getting updates about Power Smart Pricing is easier than ever. Learn about how to get the latest apps on the “PSP On Your Phone” page on www.PowerSmartPricing.org or call 1-877-655-6028 for more information.

Go to www.twitter.com/powersmart to follow @powersmart on Twitter to receive a Daily Price Report on your Twitter Feed that has the highest and lowest price for the next day.

Workshops and Newsletters

As a Power Smart Pricing participant, you will receive seasonal newsletters containing program updates, information about electricity price patterns, and tips on saving energy and money with hourly electricity pricing. In addition, each spring we offer workshops designed to help program participants learn more about managing their electricity costs, particularly during the summer when hourly prices fluctuate most. These workshops give participants a chance to discuss the program face to face with members of the Power Smart Pricing team.

Typical Price Patterns

Summer Price Patterns

Electricity prices typically fluctuate most during the summer months, driven in large part by demand for air conditioning. The orange line in the graph on page 6 illustrates how prices normally vary during summer days. Prices are usually highest during the late afternoon and tend to peak between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Higher overall prices tend to occur on days when the weather is particularly hot. Prices are generally lower on weekends and holidays and on days when the weather is cool. You can use Power Smart Pricing to manage your costs by keeping these price patterns in mind and shifting your electricity accordingly.

Fall, Winter and Spring Price Patterns

Compared with summer prices, fall, winter and spring prices are generally lower, and the price pattern is more stable. During the cooler months, there tends to be a small price spike in the morning and in the evening, as illustrated with the blue line in the graph on page 6. On many fall, winter or spring days you will notice that the hourly price of electricity remains lower than the standard residential rate all day long.

Weather Can Impact Hourly Prices

The weather can have a big impact on the wholesale hourly price of electricity, particularly during the summer when air conditioner usage drives up demand for electricity. This is why summer electricity prices tend to be highest during the afternoon. This is also why hot days tend to have higher overall prices than cooler days.

Hourly prices tend to follow predictable patterns, as illustrated above. Much of the time, the hourly price is lower than the standard fixed price. To reduce your costs with Power Smart Pricing, shift some of your electricity use from higher priced times to lower priced times.
Based on average day-ahead hourly prices January 2010 to December 2011. Prices tend to be lower on weekends and holidays.

Track Your Usage and Savings

You can access a breakdown of your hourly energy usage and costs online. You’ll be able to see graphs of your hourly electricity usage along with hourly prices, illustrating the impacts of your energy-saving actions during higher priced hours.

Each month after your bill is calculated, you will receive an email comparing your costs on Power Smart Pricing to the standard rate. For those customers without an email
address you will receive a 6 month bill summary in the mail twice a year.

Online Tools Help You Analyze Your Electricity Usage

Log in to your account to view information about your electricity usage and costs, including graphs of your monthly, daily and hourly electricity usage along with electricity prices.

In the graph below, the bars show the customer’s monthly electricity usage and costs. If you click on a bar it will show you your usage for each day that month. Clicking on one of the daily bars will allow you to see your usage and costs on hour by hour basis.

Your Monthly Results at a Glance

Along with your usage graphs, your bill comparison tool will highlight a summary of the bills you receive on Power Smart Pricing. It quickly compares your costs to what it would have been on the standard fixed rate and your savings as a percentage. You can even view details to see which part of the bill contributed to the change in your costs.

Understanding Your Bill

Some of the individual line items and charges are the same for both customers enrolled in Power Smart Pricing and for customers on the standard fixed rate. Some line items are different, or are calculated based on different rates. This section describes all of the charges you will see on your bill with Power Smart Pricing.
All residential electric service bills include three main sections: 1. DS-Residential (DS-1); 2. Electric Supply; and 3. Taxes.

1. The DS – Residential (DS-1) section will include a Rider PSP – Power Smart Pricing notation, but the charges will be the same for both Power Smart Pricing customers and customers on the standard fixed rate.

2. The Electric Supply section will change from Basic Generation Service (BGS-1) to Real-Time Pricing (RTP-1). Some of the charges in this section will remain the same on RTP-1, and others will change or will be calculated differently. The following line items will appear on your RTP bill:

• The Purchased Electricity Adj and Rider PER Supply Cost Adj charges will remain the same on RTP-1 and on BGS-1.
• The Summer (or Non-Summer) Energy Charge that appears on the BGS-1 bill will be replaced by two charges: the Day Ahead Energy Charge and the RTP Supplier Charge.
• The Day Ahead Energy Chg will be the sum of your hourly electricity use multiplied by the corresponding hourly prices. You can log in to your online account anytime to view details about your hourly electricity usage.
• The RTP Supplier Charge covers the costs of the additional services required for providing electricity. This charge typically equals 10 to 25 percent of the Day Ahead Energy Charge, but could be more. (On BGS-1 bills this charge is included in the Energy Supply Charge.) Normally this charge is higher during the summer than during the non-summer months. Your individual RTP Supplier Charge is based on both market rates and on your individual electricity use during the highest demand hour of the billing period. Since the system peak hour typically occurs between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on hot afternoons, you can help reduce the impact of the RTP Supplier Charge by continuing to shift your usage to lower priced times. Your high price alerts will make it easier to manage both the RTP Supplier Charge and the Energy Charge portions of your bills.
• The $2.25 Participation Charge will be added to this section.
• The Transmission Service Charge will be calculated slightly differently for Power Smart Pricing customers than customers on the standard fixed rate (BGS-1). As a result, the charge for Power Smart Pricing participants could be higher or lower than it would be on the BGS-1 rate. However the difference is typically less than $0.50 per month. You can reduce your Transmission Service Charge by using energy wisely when electricity demand and prices are high.

3. The Taxes section will be the same for both Power Smart Pricing and the standard fixed rate.

Program Details

Length of Program

You must remain on Power Smart Pricing for 12 consecutive billing periods. At the end of that period, you will remain on Power Smart Pricing but can cancel at any time. If you choose to cancel, you will return to the Ameren Illinois standard Basic Generation Service (BGS-1) rate or you may select a certified retail electric supplier.

Participation Fee

Power Smart Pricing participants are charged a monthly participation fee of $2.25 which is included on your electricity bill.

Your Billing Information

You will continue to receive your monthly utility bill from Ameren Illinois and you will remain on the same billing schedule. You will be billed on hourly pricing after the interval data recording meter is installed and a full month of interval data is recorded, but no sooner than the end of the monthly billing period. Once your account bills, you can use the Power Smart Pricing Web site to view more detailed information about your hourly usage and costs.

Moving or Selling Your Home

If you move or sell your home, the new owner or resident will automatically be put on the standard BGS-1 rate. If you move to another home served by Ameren Illinois, you will need to re-enroll in Power Smart Pricing in order to receive the advantages of hourly electricity pricing at that location.

For More Information

Online: www.PowerSmartPricing.org
Email: info@powersmartpricing.org
Phone: 1-877-655-6028.

Ameren Illinois

Additional details about your electricity rate options are available from Ameren Illinois at www.AmerenIllinois.com. If you have any questions pertaining to meters, meter reading, reporting outages or billing, please contact Ameren Illinois at 1-800-755-5000.

For more information on energy efficiency programs, try www.ActOnEnergy.com. ActOnEnergy® programs provide residents and businesses with tips, tools and incentives to help reduce their energy use.

Go Paperless and Save Resources

Power Smart Pricing participants can go paperless to help conserve resources and cut back on clutter. If you would prefer to receive the majority of your Power Smart Pricing communications electronically (by e-mail and online) rather than by mail, contact us at info@powersmartpricing.org and tell us you want to go paperless. Please include your name, Ameren account number, and the e-mail address you would like us to use to send you important program updates.

© 2012 CNT Energy