State agency advocates ask KCC to reject Evergy’s proposed electric rates
The Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board, a state agency tasked with advocating for consumers in utility cases, is asking the Kansas Corporation Commission to reject Evergy’s proposed electric rates concerning solar and non-solar customers.
CURB requested a temporary plan where Evergy would charge all customers, solar and non-solar, the same. All customers would pay a service charge and an energy rate, based on how much electricity they use.
Evergy had to propose new rates after their current rate structure, which included a demand charge, was ruled discriminatory against solar customers in April 2020 by the Kansas Supreme Court. Demand charges are additional fees utilities charge customers who generate their own electricity since utilities much maintaining a constant supply of electricity to the location, even if the customer doesn’t use it.
Evergy’s presented a two-part proposal for electric rates that could impact all electric customers. The first proposal is a monthly fee of $3 per kilowatt of distributed generation capacity, which refers to the size of a resident’s solar array or wind turbine. Residents who don’t generate electricity would not pay a fee.
“We believe that there will be a challenge of that charge, and it’ll bring it back to the Kansas Supreme Court,” said David Nickel, CURB’s consumer counsel. “Take into consideration that customers have already paid an illegal fee under the Supreme Court’s ruling since 2018. This is another charge that could potentially be found illegal by the Supreme Court, and there would be an additional period of time that these customers are paying an illegal fee.”
If the Kansas Corporation Commission rejects the first proposal, Evergy’s second proposal is a minimum bill of $35 for all residential customers, with and without solar.
CURB is asking the KCC to reject this proposal since the minimum bill could have significant negative impacts on low-income Kansans, Nickel said.
According to Evergy’s own testimony at the KCC, this proposal would increase the electric bill of at least 140,000 low-income Kansans.
Solar industry leaders and green energy advocates have heavily criticized both of Evergy’s proposed rates for discouraging solar in the state and pitting residents against solar customers. During a hearing earlier this month, more than 50 Kansans voiced strong opposition to the proposed rates, saying they were unfair to consumers.
CURB joined the fray recently in November by asking the Kansas Corporation Commission to reject Evergy’s proposal.
CURB asked that instead, the KCC revert all solar customers to the plan they had before 2018, when Evergy began charging the now discriminatory demand charge, at least temporarily until a new rate structure can be planned with input from the Legislature.
During this time, Evergy would be allowed to keep track of the revenue that it would have collected under the current proposed rate design. The utility would be allowed to use these numbers to inform their next rate design during the rate case in 2023, so as to not adversely affect the utilities, according to Nickel.
“Then when the rate case comes about in 2023, all the parties can get together and figure out the right rate design that makes sense for everybody,” Nickel said.
Under this plan, residential customers who don’t generate their own electricity wouldn’t see any change.
Those with solar would still pay their base customer charge and the same amount per kilowatt-hour of energy that all residential customers are currently paying, according to Nickel. But, they would no longer be paying the discriminatory demand charge.
For Jason Carmichael, who put a solar array on his home in Wichita, that would mean that his August bill which was $46.44 would have dropped to $17.34.
The Kansas Corporation Commission is still taking comments from the public on electric rates for solar customers.
Written comments can be submitted through email at public.affairs@kcc.ks.gov or by letter and must be receive by 5 p.m. Dec. 21. Information on submitting public comments can be found on the KCC’s website.
