Central Illinois Public Service Company
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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 NYSE: CIP), it merged in 1997 with the larger neighboring Union Electric Company of Missouri (formerly NYSE: UEP) to form Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) based in St. Louis, Missouri.[1] Now a subsidiary, AmerenCIPS is headquartered in Springfield, IL.[1] [2]
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[edit] History
In 1902, in Mattoon, Illinois the core of the company was born as the Mattoon City Railway Streetcar company, the first of the company's many later interurban electric railways.[2]
In 1910 the Mattoon City Railway was reorganized as the Central Illinois Public Service Company.[2]
In 1912 the CIPS Company became a subsidiary of Samuel Insull's Middle West Utilities Company. The utilities company then acquired 60 utility properties. In 1913 it built the 6,000-kilowatt Kincaid, Illinois Power Station, the first large generating power station.[2]
In 1921 the CIPS Company headquarters moved from Mattoon to downtown Springfield, Illinois, where it acquired the Farmers Bank Building and Annex, and renamed it the Public Service Building.[2]
In 1922 the CIPS Company gas and electric plants in Beardstown, Illinois were flooded by the Illinois River and tributaries.[2]
In 1923 CIPS merged with the Middle West Power Company, and acquired the Grand Tower, Illinois Power Station in southwestern Illinois on the Mississippi River. The merger brought the company's holdings to 7 generating stations, 15 ice plants, and 2 interurban railways.[2]
In 1931 the CIPS Company tore down its general office building headquarters in downtown Springfield, and on the same site built a new 15-story skyscraper, as the new Public Service Building. It was later renamed the Illinois Building.[2]
In 1932 the Middle West Utilities Company was reorganized as the Middle West Corporation, and CIPS Company was no longer under control of Samuel Insull. Middle West Corporation retained control of CIPS Company.[2]
In 1933 CIPS Company ended electric railway operations with the abandonment of the Chicago and Joliet Electric Railway and the Southern Illinois Railway and Power Company.[2]
In 1940 Construction began on the second 25,000-kilwatt unit at the Hutsonville, Illinois Power Station.[2]
In 1948 CIPS Company gained independence from the Middle West Corp., and began to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CIP, paying a dividend to stockholders.[3] At that time, CIPS also sold its 3 remaining ice plants, because the new inexpensive electric refrigerators put an end to the "ice box" and the CIPS ice trucks which had been commonplace throughout central and southern Illinois.[2]
In November 1949 a winter ice storm hit central Illinois, bringing down both CIPS primary and high-voltage transmission lines.[2]
In 1952 the CIPS Company's Meredosia, Illinois Power Station became a key contributor to the new Midwest Power Pool system, in conjunction with power provided by CIPS's future Ameren mate, the neighboring Union Electric Company, and also with another later Ameren subsidiary, Illinois Power Company.[2]
By the early 1990s Central Illinois Public Service Company, by then an electric and natural gas utility, was reorganized as a subsidiary, under its new holding company, CIPSCO Inc., which in turn continued to publicly trade on the stock exchange under the utility's old ticker symbol, CIP.[3]
In 1993 CIPSCO battled a 500-year flood in the St. Louis metropolitan area from the swollen Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.[2]
In 1995 shareholders of both CIPSCO Inc. and another utility twice its size, the S&P 500-listed Union Electric Company, approved the merger of the two companies. The merger was completed on December 31, 1997, when they became Ameren Corporation.[2] At the time of the merger, CIPSCO had assets of about US$210 million, but still carried nearly half of US$1 billion in long-term debt, which it had accumulated by the 1980s.[3]
The former CIPSCO Inc. utility, Central Illinois Public Services Company, is now a subsidiary of the Ameren Corporation holding company, known as AmerenCIPS.[1] Ameren is now a holding company for several other power companies and energy companies as well.
[edit] Criticisms
2007 marked the end of a freeze on energy prices in Illinois. AmerenCIPS along with subsidiaries AmerenIP and AmerenCILCO have been criticized for not making proper preparations for the hikes in energy prices which will be passed on to customers. According to Ameren, customers can expect to see their electricity bills increase by 22% to 55%. However, the media reports that some bills are increasing much more, up to 300%.[4]
