When people talk about innovation in the utility industry, the conversation usually focuses on grid modernization, advanced analytics, distributed energy resources, or artificial intelligence. Those technologies are certainly important. But some of the most impactful improvements in utility operations happen in places that rarely get attention – the everyday processes that support the crews and equipment keeping the lights on.

One example is fleet operations. At Ameren Illinois, fleet is a critical but often invisible part of our organization. We serve roughly one million electric customers and about 800,000 natural gas customers across a service territory covering approximately 44,000 square miles – an area larger than the state of Indiana.