By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
Empire District Electric Co. is seeking a rate increase for its Kansas customers amounting to a nearly 25 percent increase in revenues.
The impact on residential customers, if the request is approved, would be a rate increase of nearly 27 percent.
The utility based in Joplin filed its rate case Wednesday with the Kansas Corporation Commission. It seeks an annual revenue increase of $5.2 million.
Empire has 10,102 Kansas customers in towns including Baxter Springs, Columbus, Galena and Riverton, said spokeswoman Amy Bass. She said Empire’s most recent rate increase for Kansas customers was requested in April 2005 and approved in December 2005.
The rate request comes on the heels of a request for a 19.6 percent rate increase for Empire’s Missouri customers.
Bass said a Kansas residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity would pay an additional $25.09 per month if the increase is approved. The customer now pays $93.22 per month, and that would increase to $118.31.
The overall request also includes rate increases for commercial and industrial customers, and there also is a fuel cost to be considered, Bass said. She said that’s the reason the revenue increase percentage differs from the residential rate increase percentage.
In a news release about the announcement, Bill Gipson, Empire’s president and chief executive officer, said the rate increase is designed to begin recovery of the utility’s investments in its system.
They include environmental improvements to a coal-fired power plant in the Kansas City area and a separate plant in the same location that is under construction. Also included is the natural gas turbine at Riverton that came on line in 2007. The utility also has made environmental improvements to its coal-fired plant at Asbury. The company and other utilities are building a coal-fired plant at Osceola, Ark., with the most current environmental technologies.
“These additions will allow Empire to continue to provide reliable service to our customers with a balanced mix of resources,” Gipson said in the statement.
Bass said that if the Kansas Corporation Commission approves the rate increase, it probably won’t take effect until the summer of 2010. She said by that time, the plants that are currently being built should be operational.
Kansas customers of Empire who were contacted about the proposal weren’t pleased.
“That would be a pretty significant impact on a lot of our citizens on a fixed income,” said Baxter Springs Mayor Huey York.
Columbus resident Mary Bond said the increase would be difficult for her while she is trying to raise two children.
“It’s probably not good for anybody with the economy the way it is,” Bond said.
Galena resident Richard Sweet said he thinks people will be startled by the amount of the increase, as he was.
“A lot of people here are barely getting by anyway,” he said.
Case consideration
The Kansas Corporation Commission will perform an audit of Empire District Electric Co.’s operations, and a public hearing and an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled before the KCC considers the rate increase.
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Empire seeks rate increase for Kansas customers
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