Commission approves decrease to KCPL’s DSIM rider rate, shares concern about OPC violating PSC rules, procedure
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Customers of Kansas City Power & Light and KCPL Greater Missouri Operations should soon see a decrease in rates, thanks to action taken by the Missouri Public Service Commission on Thursday.
The commission approved KCPL’s and KCPL GMO’s demand-side investment mechanism (DSIM) rider rate adjustment and true up, which carried an effective date of Aug 1.
“This tariff would decrease an average residential customer’s monthly rate by about $2.41 and a nonresidential customer by about $2.79, with an overall reduction to KCPL for $8.3 million,” Chairman Daniel Hall said, stating his support for the new tariff for KCPL. It passed with a 5-0 vote.
GMO’s tariff would decrease residential customer’s bill by about $0.49 per month, a nonresidential customer’s rate would go down by about $4.84 per month, with a reduction to the company by roughly $6.4 million. It also passed with a unanimous vote.
The commission also approved an order setting a local public hearing on Aug. 21 in the matter of Ameren Missouri’s application for a CCN to construct a wind facility, which was passed 5-0.
The fourth item of the day involved Missouri-American Water Company’s rate case and the reconciliation of contested issues. MAWC filed the proposed reconciliation, the Office of Public Counsel had issue with one item concerning the interest on lead service line costs, but, Hall said, the order does not ask them to resolve that dispute but instead asks them to get the reconciliation from the company, and if there are disputes, to file those disputes along with the reconciliation filed by the company. The order was approved 5-0.
The commission also voted to expedite the compliance tariff in the matter of Ameren Missouri’s rate adjustment under SB 564, setting an effective date of Aug. 1 for the changes to take place.
MAWC’s application to acquire and operate a water and sewer system in Lawson, Mo. The requests also asked for a waiver of the 60-day-notice requirement. It was approved with a 5-0 vote.
The commission’s final order of the day may be the most interesting one, which involved KCPL and GMO’s rate cases. The company filed a notice with the commission concerning “OPC’s intent to violate PSC rules and a procedural order.”
“I guess my understanding is that OPC has indicated it intends to file additional information in its surrebuttal and the companies are claiming that any information in its surrebuttal has to be in response to the rebuttal, and so if OPC does what it says it’s going to do, it’s going to violate our rule,” Chairman Hall said.
Hall said that it seemed to him that the companies were attempting to notify them that OPC might attempt to break the rule. The PSC’s order denied that motion, noting that there had been no violation yet, but said that if OPC did, in fact, go ahead with filing new information in their surrebuttal, then it would most likely be an issue, but as Hall stated, “that’s someone else’s decision.”
As for case discussion, the PSC discussed three chapters in the telecommunications rules that staff had recommended that they rescind, saying that members of the industry had indicated that they would like those rules to stay in existence, but with perhaps some updating and modifying of the decades-old rules.
“This is a situation where it looked like it would make sense to get rid of these rules,” Hall said. “But everyone in the industry came and said there is still some value here. And the value here is not so much how we regulate, but how they deal with each other… I think that we should keep the rules in place.”
Judge Morris Woodruff said he would draft an order for the commission to vote on withdrawing the order to rescind.
The next agenda meeting will be held on July 25 at 9:30 a.m.
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.
