Ameren Corp. said Monday it will reorganize its three Illinois electric and gas utilities — AmerenCIPS, AmerenCILCO and AmerenIP — into a single utility that will be known as Ameren Illinois Co. and be a direct subsidiary of Ameren.

“The merger of AmerenCIPS, AmerenCILCO and AmerenIP into one utility is the logical next step in the evolution of our business in Illinois,” said Ameren CEO Thomas R. Voss. “For the last several years we have been moving toward operating our Illinois utilities as one company in order to reduce the cost of operations and gain efficiencies for our customers.”

Eventually the reorganization will enable streamlining, such as a single 800 phone number for use in reporting outages or getting account information. The reorganization is also expected to reduce customer confusion for those customers who currently receive bills from two of the utilities, increase operating efficiencies and reduce administrative work associated with maintaining three utilities, Ameren said.

Ameren Illinois will establish its headquarters in Peoria, IL. The company will serve all or part of 85 of Illinois’ 102 counties and rank as the second largest Illinois electricity delivery operation in number of customers (1.2 million). It will be the third largest Illinois natural gas distribution operation in number of customers (813,000).

“Stakeholders throughout the state have expressed strong preference for uniformity among our three utilities,” said Scott A. Cisel, CEO of Ameren’s Illinois utilities.

Ameren and its subsidiaries will file an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and notices with the Illinois Commerce Commission and expect to complete the reorganization by Oct. 1. Customer rates and service will not be affected.

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