KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - An 11.7 percent rate increase approved for Kansas City Power & Light will cost some of the utility's Missouri customers nearly $12 more a month.
KCP&L had sought a 15.8 percent increase to pay for pollution control at its La Cygne coal-fired plant, improvement at the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant and increased transmission costs. The lower increase approved by the Missouri Public Service Commission Wednesday is expected to raise about $90 million in added revenue. Regulators also capped KCP&L's rate of return at 9.5 percent, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1Vz4cm5).
Utility officials estimated the typical residential customers affected by the ruling will see an annual increase of $142.64, or $11.89 a month.
A request for a 12.5 percent increase in Kansas to cover similar expenses is before the Kansas Corporation Commission, which could rule next week. That state's rate increase request is lower because those customers are already paying for some of the utility's increased costs.
The Missouri rate case covered 270,000 KCP&L customers in its original service area, which includes most of Kansas City. Rates for about 315,000 other customers in western Missouri, including St. Joseph, are set separately.
The Missouri increase includes an increase in customers' $9 flat monthly fee to $11.88. Regulators also approved a fuel-adjustment provision that allows the utility to periodically pass along changes in its costs for fuel and wholesale power. That allows the utility to recover those costs more quickly, rather than adding them to its next rate increase request, said KCP&L spokesman Chuck Caisley.
Missouri's Office of Public Counsel, which represents customers in rate cases, and two groups representing commercial and industrial users had objected to adding the fuel charge, arguing that allowing the costs to move more quickly to customers could be a disincentive for the utility to watch those costs carefully because they don't have to be justified in a rate case.