St. Joseph residents to see electric bill increase
By Cameron montemayor
Electricity bills for St. Joseph residents and 270,000 customers across more than a dozen Missouri counties will increase in the new year.
The Missouri Public Service Commission gave its approval on Friday, Dec. 20, to revised base rates for Evergy Missouri West customers. The 7% increase equates to roughly $8 per month, costing thousands of customers an extra $96 per year.
The Evergy MoWest service area includes St. Joseph, Liberty, Platte City, Harrisonville, Warrensburg and many other cities.
Evergy initially requested a 13.42% increase that would have raised monthly costs by $17, totally $204 annually, a figure that was lowered by regulators following an 11-month rate review case.
“I think when you break it down to a monthly payment it doesn’t sound that bad, but you can only take so many of those hits before it is bad,” St. Joseph resident Nate Campbell said.
Despite making more money than he’s ever made in his life, Campbell said rising expenses across the board force him to largely live paycheck-to-paycheck. Campbell also expressed his concerns about how quickly the rates are changing.
“Personally I think that’s way too fast,” Campbell said. “So many services like to just let you know, ‘The rates are going up, sorry.’”
In filing the request, Evergy cited the need to recover investments made to support its energy capabilities and improve its current systems to provide more reliable power. Evergy additionally requested a 0.57% increase to account for raised fuel costs.
The Evergy MoWest rate change will affect customers who are currently signed up for the time-based rate plans, which were implemented in 2023.
Evergy’s time-based plans charge a lower price for energy most of the day, during off-peak hours, but a higher price for energy a few hours a day, during the peak times, for example from 4 to 8 p.m. a customer may be charged a higher price than a customer who uses energy from 9 p.m. to Midnight.
The Mo. PSC held five hearings across the coverage area throughout this past summer, including one hearing in July for St. Joseph customers, these hearings gave customers the chance to testify against the proposed increase.
State leaders including Mo. House of Representatives member Dean VanSchoiack, R-Savannah, even spoke out against the initial proposal along with numerous concerned residents.
Many residents cited the recent burden of higher costs associated with Evergy’s time-based rate plans implemented in 2023 as already making things extremely challenging.
Other customers spoke out against the removal of Evergy’s discount program for all-electric customers, a move that has put considerable financial strain on those who were previously benefiting from the program.
According to Evergy data, since 2017, Evergy MoWest rates have increased by about 2.5% compared to the other state regional rates, which have increased by 11% over the same period.
“We are investing strategically to ensure customers have reliable, affordable energy,” said Evergy President and Chief Executive Officer David Campbell in a release. “Our focus continues to be on more efficiently running the business, which despite this period of record inflation has resulted in a reduced increase ask for our customers.”
Reliability improvements financed by the rate increase include:
Replacing older equipment
Improving Evergy’s current systems to better handle severe weather situations
Adding new technology that helps lessen the chance of power outages and improve Evergy’s predictive maintenance capabilities
Generating more power for customers
Reducing Evergy’s risk for falling prey to big swings in pricing on electricity purchased from the market
Funding the new Dogwood Energy Center which is expected to meet the growing needs of Evergy MoWest customers
This article has been corrected from a previous version to show that rate changes will impact customers on time-based rate plans.
