By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
Missouri’s Public Service Commission on Monday will be the host for the first of two local public hearings on a nearly 20 percent rate hike sought by Empire District Electric Co.
The Joplin-based utility in October filed a rate case with the commission to increase its revenues by 19.5 percent. If the full request is granted, the company said the average residential customer would see a monthly increase in his or her utility bill of about $19.21, assuming usage of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
Members of the public will be able to comment on the proposed rate hike during two public hearings — one Monday night, a second late Tuesday morning — at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. Each hearing will be preceded by a question-and-answer session. The hearings will go on until all those who are present who wish to testify have done so, the commission said.
Empire officials previously said the company is seeking the rate increase largely to recoup its share of the investment it has made in the construction of two new coal-fired generating units — one near Kansas City and one near Osceola, Ark. — that it jointly owns with other companies. The rate increase also would help the company recoup its share of the cost of environmental upgrades to a coal-fired unit near Kansas City that it also jointly owns, and absorb the operating costs that will accompany the three units.
Empire’s investment in the three projects is to total between $366 million and $378 million, according to a presentation from company officials.
The company is seeking to increase Missouri annual revenues by $68.2 million.
In October 2007, Empire filed for a 10.11 percent hike in rates to recoup the cost of work on its Riverton, Kan., generating plant and its Asbury power station; to offset costs from damage in a January 2007 ice storm; and to help pay its part of a power plant construction project. The Public Service Commission granted the company a 6.7 percent rate increase in that case, with the hike taking effect in August 2008.
A number of residents voiced objections to that proposed hike during hearings in 2008 in Joplin.
Among those who voiced objections in 2008 was Scott Grissom.
Grissom had told the Globe in late October 2009 that Empire’s latest rate request was “absolutely ridiculous on the face of it.”
Reached for comment last week, Grissom said his sentiments had not changed “at all” since late October. He said the PSC needs to consider what dividends Empire paid to its stockholders as it weighs Empire’s request.
“They need to look into that,” Grissom said Friday.
He said he is hoping to go to one of the two hearings this week.
Time and place
A question-and-answer session will start at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Webster Hall, on the Missouri Southern State University campus. The actual public hearing will follow at 6 p.m. A second hearing will begin with a question-and-answer session at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, followed by the formal hearing at noon. That hearing, too, will take place at Webster Hall.
