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This Week in the Missouri PSC: August 22, 2018

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Just three items appeared before the Missouri Public Service Commission this week, but the commissioners want one thing made clear: the PSC staff is not colluding with companies.

Commissioners at the Wednesday agenda meeting bristled while discussing the approval of Empire District Electric Company’s customer savings plan and an application for rehearing from the Office of Public Counsel.

OPC requested a rehearing, saying that the Commission’s Report and Order is “unlawful, arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and unsupported by competent and substantial evidence” and also stating that “the signatories colluded to withhold work papers and documentation pertaining to the Stipulation and Agreement in Paragraph 7 of the document”.

That proved to be something that the commissioners took some offense to, with Chairman Daniel Hall calling OPC’s accusation “ridiculous,” saying he was confused as to what exactly OPC understood the staff’s job to be.

“That’s a hard accusation,” Commissioner Bill Kenney said. “Staff does their job, and then we make our decision. We don’t make our decisions on what the staff tells us, but on the merit of the case. So, I do think that’s a strong accusation and do hope OPC would not go that direction again.”

The other commissioners agreed with Hall and Kenney, and in the end, the commission unanimously denied the request for a rehearing, stating that OPC had not made the necessary showing for such an action to take place.

The commission also signed off another order regarding proposed rule changes. The commission had been looking at rescinding a number of rules regarding telecommunications, but after industry members from companies of all sizes came forward saying the rules were still needed, the commission agreed to leave those in place.

The final order of the day concerned the case of James and Angela Dickson v. KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations, with the Dicksons saying the company had violated rules by failing to provide safe and adequate service. KCPL had installed smart meters, which the Dicksons said was causing adverse health effects and asked that it be removed. Hall stated that the tariff allows customers to opt out of a smart meter, but then they must pay additional rates to cover the costs of sending personnel out to monitor meters. The Dicksons disagreed with paying the additional rates, but the commission approved the order in favor of KCPL, stating that no evidence had been presented to show adverse health effects due to the smart meter.