TOPEKA — Kansas Empire District Electric Co. residential customers will see their average bills increase by nearly $28 a month over the next two years after state utility regulators reluctantly approved $8.775 million in base rate increases.
The Kansas Corporation Commission on Tuesday approved a unanimous settlement agreement that was a little more than half of what Empire District, which operates as Liberty, requested in its rate case filed in December.
Residential customers using about 1,000 kilowatt hours per month of electricity will see their base rates increase $14.73 per month the first year and an additional $12.98 per month the second year, the agreement said.
THE COMPANY requested $15.8 million in December when it filed the rate case, and KCC chairman Andrew French said when he saw that number, he told KCC staff to “think creatively” to figure out a way to decrease the effect on Empire customers.
French and commissioners Dwight Keen and Annie Kuether raised concerns about inflicting such a large increase on consumers at their Tuesday business meeting. Kuether asked the company to consider installment plans for payments, which it doesn’t currently offer.
“Had this dose been spread over a different time period, it’s possible that the same result would have been obtained with a lesser amount of pain,” Keen said.
He said he is concerned about the need for an additional rate case in the near future and effects on the company’s small customer base in Kansas.
“This is an economically challenged part of the state,” Keen said, referring to about 8,400 residential customers and nearly 1,350 commercial and industrial customers that Empire District serves in southeast Kansas, primarily in Cherokee County.
THE UNANIMOUS agreement was reached between KCC staff, the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board and Empire District.
French said he believes the settlement pares the increase down to a “more reasonable” number.
“It phases it in to give folks some time to adjust,” he said. “But at the end of this, I think bills are still higher than I would like, and it’s in the most economically disadvantaged part of the state, and in my view, it’s just not sustainable for that to be the case or to get to get worse in the future.”
The commission said Empire should communicate regularly with KCC staff about affordability and the company’s need to invest in its system.
“I think that’s really important because, as we discussed at hearing, there are a lot of pressures on them that are going to make affordability very difficult when they need to invest in their system, but have just a very small customer base in Kansas,” French said.
New rates take effect Aug. 1, the KCC order said.
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