KCP&L seeks rate increase for Missouri customers

What can you do with 7.5 percent?

Kansas City Power & Light, through a 7.5 percent rate increase, could generate an additional $62.9 million a year in revenue, company spokeswoman Courtney Hughley said.

On Friday, the utility company, a subsidiary of Great Plains Energy, filed the rate increase request with the Missouri Public Service Commission.

According to a news release, the request is “needed to recover money spent upgrading the company’s infrastructure, adding regional transmission lines, and complying with environmental and cybersecurity mandates.”

If the commission approves the request, the monthly bill for an average customer will go up about $9 a month.

The process for a rate request takes some time, the company said, and it wouldn’t go into effect until April 2017.

“We realize that there is never a good time to ask for a rate increase,” Hughley said.

KCP&L offers bill payment assistance programs to its customers, she added.

The increase would affect customers in the KCP&L Missouri service area, which encompasses the Kansas City area. People in Missouri who were served by Aquila before the 2008 acquisition won’t be affected.

However, in February, KCP&L asked for an 8.2 percent rate increase for those customers. The commission is still mulling that request.

This is KCP&L’s seventh rate request in 10 years for the Missouri service area. In September, KCP&L won an 11.7 percent increase, which bumped up average bills about $12 a month.

In May, KCP&L’s parent company, Great Plains, agreed to buy Westar Energy, a Topeka-based utility company. Great Plains CEO Terry Bassham said at the time that the merger would help keep rates down. The merger is still pending state and federal approval.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "KCP&L seeks rate increase for Missouri customers."