Solar supporters to rally before meeting on Westar rate increase

Solar energy is adding a little heat to a public hearing scheduled for Thursday in Wichita on Westar Energy’s latest rate increase request.

Organizing around a symbol of yellow umbrellas and the slogan “Don’t block the sun,” more than 100 people have confirmed they’ll attend a pro-solar rally before the Kansas Corporation Commission meeting, said Lauren Randall of the industry group Alliance for Solar Choice.

The hearing starts with an informal question-and-answer session at 4:30 p.m. Solar supporters are vowing to take their turn – maybe lots of turns – at the microphone when the commissioners start taking official testimony at 6 p.m.

The hearing will be held at the Wichita State University Hughes Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th St. North. Live teleconference sites will allow customers to view and comment from the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson and the Kansas State University College Center in Salina.

The alliance and solar-system installers are upset over a proposal by Westar to bump up base rates for future customers who generate some of their own electricity by putting solar panels on their roofs.

Under Westar’s plan, those customers would be put into one of two new rate classes, paying either a $50-a-month base service rate or a variable “demand charge” based on peak usage, for access to Westar power when the sun isn’t shining.

Solar supporters say those charges would basically negate the benefit of self-generation, strangling the fledgling solar industry.

Westar has nearly 700,000 customers, and only about 300 have solar panels now. But the number of new installations rose 60 percent last year, and a survey by Westar indicated that about seven out of 10 customers are at least somewhat interested in rooftop solar.

Westar argues that it costs the company about as much to serve a solar customer as a regular customer. But the solar customers don’t buy as much power from Westar, meaning Westar makes less money and other customers indirectly subsidize the self-generators’ service, the company contends.

Solar isn’t the only big-ticket issue in the rate case.

The Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board is objecting to a Westar proposal to raise the base residential customer charge by $3 a month each year for the next five years.

At the end of the five years, the monthly charge would be $27 a month, up from the current $12.

CURB, the state agency representing residential and small-business customers, says that puts too much burden of paying for the power system on low-income and senior customers who use little electricity.

Westar argues that the low base charge unfairly shifts the burden of paying for the power system to large users.

If approved as submitted, Westar’s proposal would raise the average home customer’s bill by about $13 a month, a 7.9 percent increase.

The company will almost certainly get a substantial rate increase, mostly to pay costs of required environmental upgrades at the La Cygne coal power plant and changes needed to extend the service life of the Wolf Creek nuclear plant.

The commission is required to allow the company to recover those costs, plus give Westar a reasonable opportunity to make a profit for its stockholders.

However, there is still room to argue over how much profit Westar should be allowed to collect.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Solar supporters to rally before meeting on Westar rate increase."