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Ameren may have to reimburse people for spoiled meat

BY MIKE RIOPELL, The Southern Springfield Bureau

Friday, November 21, 2008 4:13 PM CST

SPRINGFIELD (LEE)_As Gov. Rod Blagojevich mulls legislation intended to help get a power plant off the ground in Taylorville, tucked in the proposal is a provision that could require Ameren to reimburse customers for their losses from some power outages.

Under the plan, if an Ameren outage that lasts more than four hours is deemed ''preventable,'' the utility would have to pay for customers' expenses that arose because of the outage.

For example, some customers might lose meat in a freezer, or others might be forced to stay in a hotel. If a particular outage met the proposal's guidelines, Ameren would have to pick up the bill.

A similar rule is already in place for customers of northern Illinois utility ComEd.

''It's basically extending the same rights to southern Illinois that people in Chicago have,'' said state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion.

Supporters managed to insert the Ameren plan into legislation approved this week primarily aimed at helping developer Tenaska build the Taylorville Energy Center.

Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris said the company supports the plan and works hard to prevent outages.

''It already meets our standards,'' Morris said.

The legislation was approved this week by the Illinois Senate and now awaits final review by Blagojevich.

The legislation is Senate Bill 1987.