Wichita City Council plans to call on Evergy to back down on proposed rate increases
The Wichita City Council is poised to vote on a resolution condemning Evergy’s proposed rate hikes, which would tack an additional $14.42 on average onto south-central Kansans’ monthly energy bills.
The resolution, which will come to a vote Tuesday, argues the increase would “impair economic growth, sustainability and the common benefit for the city of Wichita and its residents.”
Under the proposal, Evergy plans to collect an extra $218.4 million annually through a 9.77% increase in the Kansas Central region — which includes south-central Kansas — and a 1.95% increase in the Kansas Metro region, which includes the area around Johnson and Wyandotte Counties.
“It’s a rate increase that no one can afford right now with the high cost of everything else,” District 5 council member Bryan Frye said. “From groceries to fuel to rent, mortgages and property taxes — everyone’s hurting.”
The proposed hike, which the Kansas Corporation Commission is tasked with approving or denying, would cost the city an estimated 8.3% more for lighting and public utilities.
“Wichita Water Utility is a significant user of electricity and would be adversely impacted by the proposed rate increases, which could impact system reliability by lowering capital available for rebuilding infrastructure,” the resolution states.
Frye said the city isn’t in a position to absorb a price hike without passing costs onto water customers.
“If the city is going to have to pay that price as well, it means we’ll either have to cut services or raise fees,” he said.
Evergy has said the additional funds are needed to offset rising interest rates and investments the company has made in its power plants over the last five years, as well as the cost of dismantling retiring plants, IT expenses and several expiring contracts, including one for “life insurance policies on key company executives.”
“For a company that’s doing well with their own stock and doing well overall to try to shift some of that burden to hard-working Wichitans is not something that the council nor myself can stand by without voicing our opinion in the most formal way we have, which is through a resolution,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said.
“The idea that our seniors, our people on fixed income will have to choose between turning the air conditioner on and getting food in their fridge is heartbreaking.”
In an email response to The Eagle, Evergy spokesperson Kaley Bohlen contended that Wichita utility customers have not seen an increase in the base cost of electricity over the past five years.
“With the filing of this rate case, Evergy rates will have increased well under the level of inflation,” Bohlen wrote.
“It is also well under the level of increases passed on to water and sewer customers in Wichita over that same time period. The Wichita City Council has voted three times to increase water and sewer rates since 2019, totaling approximately 15%.”
The energy giant held a public hearing last month where residents packed into the Wichita State Metroplex to voice their opposition to rising rates.
“In that crowd, everyone wanted to be somewhere else, and they were all there because they wanted Evergy to recognize that this is a bad time to be hiking up — especially to this extent — these type of fees on folks who need their electricity,” Whipple said.
Frye said the Kansas Corporation Commission should consider that signing off on the rate hikes would disadvantage an important region of the state’s economy.
“It’s the largest city in the state with significant power users that we depend on for economic development between Spirit, Occidental Chemical, Textron — we have some large users of electricity in the state, and the cost of utility is an economic development factor,” he said.
Passing a city resolution would not have any binding legal implications for Evergy. The KCC is accepting written comments on the proposed increase until Sept. 29 before the three-member state regulator panel makes its final decision.