Commission amends order regarding Empire hedging practices
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Public Service Commission received a short reprieve this week for their weekly agenda meeting, as no major rate cases, case discussions or orders appeared on the docket.
The first item up before the commission concerned AT&T Missouri’s request for the PSC to reverse the North American Numbering Plan Administrator’s decision to withhold numbering resources. AT&T Missouri was requesting an additional 500 numbers to supply a need at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City and the commission addressed the request as they have nearly every request of the sort.
“We go through a rigorous 17-point review on these, and one of these days, we’re going to find one of those issues, but today is not that day,” Commissioner Scott Rupp said.
“It’s always fun to overturn a federal agency’s decision, is it not?” Chairman Daniel Hall asked.
“It is,” Rupp replied with a grin.
The next item concerned Empire District Electric Company’s amended prudence review. Earlier this year, the PSC reviewed the company’s hedging policy, determining that the company had been prudent and that it was not the PSC’s place to “Monday-morning quarterback” the company’s decision, but the Office of Public Counsel filed a motion for a rehearing, which Chairman Hall said he believed required them to revise their prior order.
“The determination is unchanged, but in our prior order, we indicated that it was appropriate for the commission to look at the hedging policy at the next rate case. I still think that is appropriate, but I don’t want that language and order to be interpreted as the commission punting on the statutorily required prudence review,” Hall said. “And I believe that the order as drafted makes it very clear that during the time that the decisions were made regarding these hedging decisions, there was no information made available that made it clear that those decisions were inappropriate, and for us to look backward and determine that because there were losses, and therefore those decisions were imprudent, is not the appropriate process to undertake in a prudence review.”
Only Commissioner Rupp did not support the order, saying he did not believe their policies were prudent and need to be reviewed, a stance he has held throughout the case.
With Commissioner Ryan Silvey abstaining from the vote, the order passed with a 3-1-1 vote.
The third order concerned Summit Natural Gas’ purchased gas adjustment clause. Staff completed an audit with one revision to the ACA balances, the company was in agreement, and it passed with a 5-0 vote.
The final order regarded Matt Mylott’s application for a change of electric service providers. Mr. Mylott’s property contains four structures, three of which receive service from White River, while the fourth is supplied electricity by Empire.
Mylott requested that all of his services come from one single provider, and an agreement was reached in which Empire would release Mylott’s property for a one-time payment of $6,200, which represent four years of lost revenues.
It passed with a 5-0 vote.
The PSC’s next agenda meeting will be held next Wednesday at noon.
Next week, the commission begins their hearing in the Missouri American Water Company case, with their next agenda meeting being held on March 7 at noon.
The week after that, the PSC will hear the case regarding the Great Plains/Westar merger, starting on March 12.
Benjamin Peters was a reporter for The Missouri Times and Missouri Times Magazine and also produced the #MoLeg Podcast. He joined The Missouri Times in 2016 after working as a sports editor and TV news producer in mid-Missouri. Benjamin is a graduate of Missouri State University in Springfield.
