Missouri Senate Bill SB186

Missouri 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/8/25
• Refer: 2/3/25

Caption

Creates provisions relating to integrated resource planning for electrical corporations

Summary

SB 186 revises Missouri law governing electrical corporations by creating a new framework for integrated resource planning, capacity reporting, and limited cost recovery for certain generation projects. The bill requires the Public Service Commission to begin a statewide integrated resource planning proceeding by August 28, 2026, and then establish a recurring four-year filing schedule for utilities. Each electrical corporation must file a detailed integrated resource plan covering at least a 16-year horizon, including load forecasts, resource adequacy, generation mix, transmission and gas supply needs, demand-side resources, environmental compliance, rate impacts, and a preferred plan for meeting future obligations. The bill also authorizes the commission to require annual capacity documentation and additional audits, and it allows the commission to disallow costs if a utility is imprudent in failing to secure sufficient capacity. If the commission approves a preferred resource plan, that approval can function as permission to construct or acquire specified supply-side resources, with an expedited certificate-of-convenience-and-necessity process. The bill further creates a limited exception to Missouri’s general prohibition on including construction work in progress in rate base, allowing certain new natural gas generating units and approved resource-plan projects to recover CWIP under specified conditions, subject to refund if costs are later found imprudent.

Impact

SB 186 would significantly expand the Missouri Public Service Commission’s oversight of electric utility planning and resource procurement, while also changing rate-making rules for certain generation investments. It adds new statutory sections requiring integrated resource planning, capacity adequacy reporting, and commission review of utility plans, and it amends the existing CWIP prohibition in section 393.135 to allow limited inclusion of construction work in progress for new natural gas generating units and for projects approved through the new planning process. The bill would affect electrical corporations, ratepayers, and PSC proceedings by tying future utility investments more closely to commission-approved long-term plans and by creating new opportunities for utilities to recover certain pre-operational costs in rates.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears procedural and policy-driven rather than overtly contentious in the available record. The bill is structured as a comprehensive utility-planning measure, suggesting an emphasis on reliability, resource adequacy, and regulatory certainty. Its detailed requirements and commission oversight provisions indicate a serious effort to modernize planning rules for electrical corporations.

Contention

The main points of potential contention are the bill’s treatment of construction work in progress and its emphasis on new natural gas generation. Consumer advocates or ratepayer interests could object to allowing utilities to recover costs before a plant is operational, even with refund protections, because it shifts financial risk toward customers. Environmental or clean-energy stakeholders may also scrutinize the bill’s explicit accommodation of new natural gas units and the extent to which the planning framework favors fossil-fuel infrastructure over alternatives. On the other hand, utilities and reliability-focused stakeholders are likely to support the bill’s emphasis on capacity adequacy, expedited approvals, and clearer recovery rules for approved projects.