The Union Electric Company of Missouri (formerly ) was an

electric power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions ...

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosophe ...

that was organized in 1902 and grew to be one of the large U.S. companies listed among the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of ...

. In 1997, its holding company merged with a smaller neighboring utility,

Central Illinois Public Service Company The Central Illinois Public Service Company was an electric streetcar holding company and power utility first organized in 1902. Under its later quarter billion dollar holding company, CIPSCO Inc. (formerly ), it merged in 1997 with the larger neigh ...

through its holding company, CIPSCO Inc. (formerly ), to form Ameren Corporation () based in St. Louis, Missouri.Ameren Corporation, About Us

History

The company's first incarnation, the Union Company, was organized in 1902 in St. Louis. Two years later, the renamed Union Electric Company built the 36 MW coal-fired Ashley Street Plant in the city's Near North Riverfront region to provide steam heat to downtown St. Louis. The plant was for years the city's main source of electricity. It powered The Palace of Electricity's electric lights at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.A Century of Excellence, Ameren History 1902-2002
, Ameren.com The plant was converted to oil in 1972 and from oil to natural gas in 1996. Today, the plant functions as a district steam plant for the city of St. Louis and is owned by Ashley Energy. By 1906, Union Electric Company was a publicly traded stock and began to pay a cash

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-i ...

to shareholders, which it paid every year until the 1997 merger.Standard & Poor's Stock Guide, April 1996 In 1909, Union Electric began selling electric cars, and became the St. Louis agent for

Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...

and Rauch & Lang automobiles. In 1919, the Shubert-Jefferson Theatre in the Union Electric building hosted a post-war national caucus in which the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is made up of state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, and these are in turn made up of ...

was born. In 1927, a tornado struck St. Louis, destroying more than US$10 million worth of property, including Union Electric's electricity lines to the city. By 1929, Union Electric Company became a subsidiary holding company of

North American Company The North American Company was a holding company incorporated in New Jersey on June 14, 1890, and controlled by Henry Villard, to succeed to the assets and property of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. It owned public utilities and publi ...

,^{( org chart)} one of the original stocks in the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

.Jeremy J. Siegel, '' Stocks for the Long Run'', McGraw-Hill, Second Edition, 1998, Union Electric subsidiaries at the time included Union Electric Light and Power (Missouri) and Union Electric Light and Power of Illinois. In 1929, UE completed Bagnell Dam on the Osage River, creating the

Lake of the Ozarks Lake of the Ozarks is a reservoir created by impounding the Osage River in the northern part of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Parts of three smaller tributaries to the Osage are included in the impoundment: the Niangua River, Grandglaize Cr ...

with 1,400 miles of shoreline and a power station that generated almost 175 megawatts of hydroelectricity. The associated Union Electric Administration Building-Lakeside was constructed in 1930; it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1998, with a boundary increase in 2011. In 1937 the company acquired the shares of the

Union Colliery Company The Union Colliery Company was a bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined band ...

,, By 1940, Union Electric Company was one of three holding companies and also one of the ten major direct subsidiaries in the US$2.3 billion North American Company pyramid of 80 companies. At that time, North American owned more than 79% of Union Electric stock. FindLaw.com North American Company was broken up by the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

after the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

decision of April 1, 1946. Union Electric Company was then divested from North American. Until the 1997 merger, Union Electric Company traded publicly as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol UEP. By the 1950s, Union Electric owned gas operations in and around

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is a p ...

, and acquired other utilities to become the third largest distributor of natural gas in Missouri. In 1952, Union Electric joined with its future Ameren mate, the Central Illinois Public Service Company; and also with another later Ameren subsidiary, the Illinois Power Company, to form the Midwest Power Pool system. In 1963 Union Electric completed construction of one of the largest pumped storage plants at that time, the then-350-megawatt Taum Sauk Plant, in

Reynolds County, Missouri Reynolds County is a county located in the Ozark Foothills Region in the Lead Belt of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,096. Its county seat is Centerville. The county was officially organized on February 25, 1845, and was ...

. In December 2005, a large section of the dam containing the plant's upper reservoir failed, draining over a billion gallons of water in less than half an hour. In 1984, Union Electric's first nuclear energy plant, the Callaway Nuclear Generating Station, began providing 1,143 megawatts of power from Callaway County, Missouri. In 1993, Union Electric battled a

500-year flood A 100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1% probability) of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood, since its annual exceedance probability is 1%.Holmes, R.R., Jr. ...

in the St. Louis metropolitan area from the swollen

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

and

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

s. In 1994, Union Electric shared the industry's Edison Award with Midwest Power Systems, Inc., of

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

, for their work providing electric service to customers during the 1993 flood disaster. In 1995, shareholders of both Union Electric Company and CIPSCO Inc. approved the companies' merger. The merger was completed on December 31, 1997, forming Ameren Corporation. At the time of the merger, Union Electric had assets of nearly US$600 million, but still carried nearly US$1.8 billion in long-term debt, down from US$2.5 billion which it had accumulated by the 1980s. The former Union Electric Company is now a subsidiary of the Ameren Corporation holding company, initially d/b/a AmerenUE, later becoming Ameren Missouri in 2010. Ameren is now also a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

for several other

power companies An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...

and energy companies as well. Ameren Missouri continues to own Bagnell Dam. Ameren Missouri is responsible for managing water levels on the Lake of the Ozarks according to federal regulations; if levels are not appropriate, the lake must be closed until Ameren can solve the problem. Today, with nine power plants, Ameren Missouri serves 1.2 million power customers and 110,000 gas customers, primarily in Missouri, where more than half of its customers reside in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It formerly served Iowa as well through the mid-1990s. The former AmerenUE also served adjoining parts of Illinois; that portion would be transferred to Ameren Illinois in 2010.

References

External links

Ameren.com

Taum Sauk

FERC Taum Sauk Page - Reports, Charges and Settlement available hereArchived
14 March 2021

{{Authority control Defunct electric power companies of the United States Hydroelectric power companies of the United States Nuclear power companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Missouri Companies based in St. Louis Energy companies established in 1902 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1902 1902 establishments in Missouri