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This Week in the Missouri PSC: November 1, 2017

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Public Service Commission is closer to completing their review of the rules and statutes as ordered by Gov. Eric Greitens, with staff estimating to fully complete the project and send it to the Governor’s Office by the end of the year.

During the latest agenda meeting of the PSC, members of the staff requested the commission’s approval to send a summary of their findings to the Governor’s Office, after updating the commission on their progress.

But the PSC has already found some changes to make and is moving forward in the process. In Wednesday’s meeting, the commissioners signed off on two orders sending rule changes to JCAR for review before heading to the Secretary of State’s Office for publishing. One order simply rescinds provisions the PSC has deemed redundant, while the other updates the electric safety code to meet the current 2017 standards used nationally.

Those orders were just two out of the ten orders put before the commission on Wednesday. The PSC signed off on the three items that were the center of the case discussions in the previous meeting, concerning the special contemporary issues for KCP&L G-MO, KCP&L, and Empire in their IRP filings.

The commission withdrew one order, which concerned a complaint from the Office of Public Counsel, as the PSC staff also had an order that would render their complaint moot.

The case in question concerned Fawn Lake Water Corporation and its owner, Rachel Hackman, whom staff asserted owned and operated an unauthorized water corporation back in 2015. Staff asked the commission to grant a default determination and authorize the General Counsel’s Office to bring an action for civil penalties and injunctive relief, which was approved by a 5-0 vote.

The commission also approved the applications to intervene by eight different parties in the matter of Ameren Missouri’s 2017 Integrated Resource Plan, to which Ameren had only argued against one. The PSC ruled that all parties had a right to intervene, as the IRP has such broad implications.

The PSC also voted to approve Summit Natural Gas’ three tariff sheets reflecting the changes in their purchased gas adjustment (PGA) charges on an interim basis. Those changes will be as follows:

  • The changes applicable to the Company’s Gallatin Division will increase the firm sales customers’ Total PGA from $0.3517 per Ccf to $0.4507 per Ccf. The proposed change represents a $0.0990 per Ccf increase.
  • The changes applicable to the Company’s Warsaw and Lake of the Ozarks Divisions will decrease the firm sales customers’ Total PGA from $0.4664 per Ccf to $0.4336 per Ccf. The proposed change represents a $0.0328 per Ccf decrease.
  • The changes applicable to the Company’s Rogersville and Branson Divisions will increase the firm sales customers’ Total PGA from $0.5058 per Ccf to $0.5122 per Ccf. The proposed change represents a $0.0064 per Ccf increase.

The tenth order of the day regarded the territorial agreement between Missouri American Water Company and Audrain Public Water Supply District No. 1, which had been approved in April. As part of that agreement, MAWC was directed to submit a legal description of the corporate limits of the City of Mexico as they existed on Sept. 30, 2016.

MAWC requested that the commission instead accept a map instead, saying that to obtain a legal description, it would cost $10,000 -$15,000. The commission granted the variance request with a 5-0 vote.