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 2011 PSP program guide as a PDF document.

Power Smart Pricing 2011 Program Guide

Power Smart Pricing is an hourly pricing program for residential customers served by Ameren Illinois. If you are interested in taking some simple actions to use electricity wisely, Power Smart Pricing could help you save money on your electricity bill.

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. If you select Power Smart Pricing, 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. If you have questions about the program, please contact us at 1-877-655-6028 or info@powersmartpricing.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
www.ActOnEnergy.com

Contents

Program Benefits
Compare Your Rate Options
How to Check Prices
Possible Savings
Typical Price Patterns
Tracking Your Usage, Cost and Savings
Understanding Your Bill
Program Details

Program Benefits

Choose to Be an Electricity Bargain Hunter

Power Smart Pricing lets you pay hourly electricity prices that are based on wholesale market prices. Historically, the average annual market price is lower than the Utility Basic Generation Service (BGS) rate. Higher prices are most likely to occur on weekday afternoons during the summer.

You can manage your costs with Power Smart Pricing by shifting usage to lower priced hours and conserving electricity during hours when prices are higher. With Power Smart Pricing, the choice is up to you.

Get Access to Information and Services

The Power Smart Pricing program gives you personalized information, tools and services to help you take control of your electricity costs. You’ll receive:

•    Online tools to view information about your electricity usage and costs as well as a your potential savings.
•    Personalized information and tips to help you reduce your costs.
•    Enhanced customer support provided by CNT Energy.
•    Access to electricity prices online, by phone and your mobile device so you can decide how and when to use electricity.

Help the Environment and Your Community

When you use energy wisely, you help the environment and help preserve our world’s energy supplies. By conserving when electricity prices and demand are high, you’ll help to reduce the peak demand for electricity. Lowering the peak demand helps to reduce the need to operate or build additional power plants.

Reducing peak electricity demand also reduces strain on the electricity grid, which helps to maintain reliability in your community. With Power Smart Pricing, your efforts to help the environment by using electricity wisely when demand is high could also be rewarded with lower electricity bills.

Compare Your Rate Options

The main difference between Power Smart Pricing and Ameren Illinois’ standard residential rate, (Utility Basic Generation Service, or BGS) is how the cost of electricity supply is calculated.

Regardless of your electric supply choice (Power Smart Pricing, or Utility Basic Generation Service), all customers are required to pay Delivery Service charges. These charges are for Ameren Illinois to maintain the poles, wires, and services required to deliver electricity to your home, and are shown separately on your electric bill.

Standard Residential Rate

With the standard residential rate (Utility Basic Generation Service, or BGS), you pay a set price for your electricity supply. This price varies by season, and is adjusted periodically, but it does not change from hour to hour or from day to day. You pay the same price for electricity no matter what time of day or day of the week you use it. (For the current electric supply prices for Ameren Illinois, go to www.AmerenIllinois.com click on “My Home” and then “Residential Rates”.)

Power Smart Pricing

With Power Smart Pricing, the price of the electricity varies from hour to hour based on wholesale market prices. So the price you pay for electricity depends on the time of the day when you use it. Your bill will show the total cost for the electricity used, calculated using the hourly market prices and your corresponding hourly usage.

The program uses “day-ahead” prices, meaning the hourly prices for each day are set the evening in advance. Each evening, price information for the following day is available online and by phone.

Ameren Illinois does not mark up the price of power; you simply pay the market price.

How to Check Prices

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

• On the home page of our website www.PowerSmartPricing.org
• By phone at 1-877-655-6028

Tip: You can check the prices in advance to plan how and when you use energy.

High Price Alerts

To help you 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. The message will also inform you which particular hours fall under the alert. 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 CNT Energy if there are any changes.

Mobile Tools to Access Price Information

Getting updates about Power Smart Pricing is easier than ever. New technologies and web services have made for some unique ways to receive information. Learn more about how to get the latest apps in the “PSP On Your Phone” web page at www.PowerSmartPricing.org or call 1-877-655-6028 for more information.

Go to www.twitter.com/powersmart to follow @powersmart on Twitter to recieve a Daily Price Report on your Twitter Feed that has the highest and lowest price for the next day. Use this service as a quick way to see what the prices will be like and which hours are best to avoid.

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 CNT Energy offers 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.

Possible Savings

The more you can take action to conserve electricity when prices are high, the more you can save with hourly pricing. Customers in this program have saved an average of 25 percent on the electricity supply portion of their electricity bills compared with what they would pay on the standard rate. Similar savings are likely in the future; however, electricity markets can change and future performance levels cannot be guaranteed.

Note: Power Smart Pricing does not impact your natural gas bill. The program targets your electricity costs only.

Typical Price Patterns

Average Hourly Price Patterns

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 since January 2007. Prices tend to be lower on weekends and holidays.

Summer Price Patterns

Electricity prices typically fluctuate most during the summer, driven in large part by demand for air conditioning. The yellow line in the graph 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 checking the prices the evening before to plan how and when you use energy.

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. This is because overall demand is not driven by air conditioning as it is during the summer. During the cooler months, there tends to be a small price spike in the morning and another slightly larger spike in the evening, as illustrated with the blue line in the graph. On many fall, winter or spring days you’ll notice that the hourly price of electricity remains lower than the standard residential rate all day long.

Other Factors that 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.

Prices can sometimes increase in the spring or fall if a heat wave occurs during a time when some power plants are shut down for maintenance. During the winter, electricity prices can also spike when sudden and significant temperature drops or extended cold snaps push up natural gas and coal prices, increasing the cost of operating power plants.

There can also be brief price spikes if multiple power plants have technical or mechanical problems at the same time, or if there are problems in parts of the regional transmission network that is used to transport electricity from the power plant to Ameren Illinois’ distribution system.

Tracking Your Usage, Costs and Savings

Each month after your bill is calculated, you will be able to 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.

Online Tools Help You Analyze Your Electricity Usage and Costs

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 residential 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

Charges on Your Bill with Power Smart Pricing

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 residential 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 residential 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 the 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 residential 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 residential rate.

Program Details

Meter Exchange

To participate in Power Smart Pricing, your electricity meter must be replaced with a meter capable of recording your energy use on an hourly basis. Ameren Illinois will install this new meter at no additional charge. The new meter will store hourly data electronically. If the required meter cannot be installed due to equipment compatibility problems at your home, or reasonable access for monthly readings is questionable, Ameren Illinois will contact you and provide information about your options.

Participation Fee

Customers who select Power Smart Pricing will be charged a monthly fee of $2.25 to participate in the program. This fee will be included in your electricity bill. Savings from Power Smart Pricing are expected to more than offset this modest monthly charge.

Length of Program

To participate in this program, you must agree to remain on the hourly, market-based electricity rate for a minimum of 12 consecutive monthly billing periods. At the end of that period, you will be free to contact any certified third party supplier or Ameren Illinois if you wish to select a different supply option.

Your Billing Information

If you select Power Smart Pricing, 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 residential 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.

The Fine Print

Power Smart Pricing is an Ameren Illinois program that requires participating customers to agree to the terms of the tariffs including Rider RTP and Rider PSP. To view the details of Rider RTP and Rider PSP or any of the Ameren Illinois tariffs, visit the “Rates” section of Ameren’s Web site at www.ameren.com. This program may be terminated in late 2011, unless an extension is approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Participation in Power Smart Pricing does not guarantee energy or cost savings. Final energy bills will be based on your electricity usage and market rates. If the program is terminated at any point, you will be returned to the standard residential rate unless you select an alternative rate option. There will be no cost or penalty to you for this change.

For More Information

More information and news about Power Smart Pricing is available online at  www.powersmartpricing.org. For questions related to other Power Smart Pricing program services, such as electricity price information, your personalized savings updates, or high price notifications, please contact us at info@powersmartpricing.org or at 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.