Evergy asks Kansas Corporation Commission to delay fuel costs to reduce customer price increases
The days ahead will bring increases to the bills of Evergy Kansas Central customers because of rising natural gas and wholesale power prices, but the company filed last week to delay some fuel costs to keep that price jumps lower than they would otherwise have to be.
If approved, Evergy’s requested Annual Correction Adjustment (ACA) would still raise the average residential customer’s monthly bill by about $3 starting next month. Evergy itself has experienced higher net fuel and purchased power costs than anticipated but sought to delay recovering $52 million worth of those costs. The company claimed an under-recovery of $172 million, an increase of $117 million over what it is currently collecting based on last year’s update.
The issue is that the estimated costs collected from customers fell far short of actual costs last year. Fuel costs change with time, and the past year brought great instability. Charges are adjusted annually to help customers pay only the actual costs. While cost estimation models were utilized to predict these costs, Evergy noted the models underestimated the impacts of rising wholesale power and natural gas prices, along with the inflationary pressures that hit the broader economy.
This cost adjustment did not include expenses incurred due to winter storm Uri from February 2021. Those are being evaluated in a separate proceeding with the KCC.
