AMEREN CORPORATION TO RECEIVE “NEW PRODUCT AWARD” FOR WIRELESS ELECTRIC METERING SYSTEM

St. Louis, MO, Feb. 19, 2003—Ameren Corporation will receive the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers’ (MSPE) New Product Award for Ameren Abacus—a wireless metering information system that allows customers to track their energy usage over the Internet.

            The award will be presented Friday, Feb. 21, at the annual MSPE St. Louis Chapter’s Engineers Week Awards Banquet in St. Louis.

            Patented by the U.S. Patent Office in 2001, Ameren Abacus builds on Ameren’s network of 1.2 million wireless electric and natural gas meters—one of the largest such networks in the world—to allow customers to monitor their energy usage with personal computers.

            Ameren Abacus gives registered users, typically commercial or industrial customers, the power to view their usage data daily in 15-minute increments over a secure Internet connection.  The data can be charted, graphed and sorted by process, facility or equipment type—allowing customers to identify their usage patterns and make operating decisions to minimize energy consumption and lower costs.

            Ameren Abacus was the brainchild of two Ameren employees, Senior Vice President Tom Voss and Key Account Executive Mike Pitchford (now retired).  Ameren Director of Products and Services Greg Lovett will accept the award for Ameren.  Lovett is now the manager of the Abacus program.

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First offered in 1998, Ameren Abacus is now used by several hundred businesses—including St. Louis’ Savvis Center, Washington University and Stag Investments—for their energy management needs.  Businesses need not be Ameren customers or part of the company’s wireless meter network to benefit from Ameren Abacus.  For more information, see Ameren’s web site—www.ameren.com.

“The purpose of the MSPE New Product Award is to stimulate and recognize the full spectrum of values that comes from the research and engineering of new products,” says Cherie Bishop, MSPE director of operations.  “Ameren Abacus was selected for the award because it allows customers to play a partnership role in becoming responsible energy users.”

With assets of $13.4 billion, Ameren serves 1.7 million electric customers and 500,000 natural gas customers in a 49,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.

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