Evergy Missouri West rates maintain price
advantage compared with neighboring states
Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVRG) filed a request and supporting
documentation with the Missouri Public Service Commission today to
recover investments made in generation capacity and grid
modernization for customers in its Evergy Missouri West service
area.
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the full release here:
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Evergy Missouri rates have decreased
since 2017 while rates regionally have increased. See Evergy news
release for data sources and graph footnote. (Graphic: Business
Wire)
The Evergy Missouri West service area serves more than 340,000
customers and includes St. Joseph, Liberty, Platte City,
Harrisonville, and Warrensburg, among other cities. The majority of
the Kansas City Metropolitan region is not in the Missouri West
service area. Most Kansas City Metropolitan customers are in the
Missouri Metro service area. Evergy is not asking for any changes
to base rates in its Missouri Metro service area.
As part of today’s filing, Evergy is requesting to increase base
rates for Evergy Missouri West customers by about $104 million, or
13.42% percent, excluding fuel. The prices customers pay for
electric service are calculated based on actual costs the company
incurred and investments the company has made. To justify any price
increase, Evergy must demonstrate that the costs were warranted and
prudent. The request also includes a 0.57% increase to account for
increased fuel costs. Evergy has not requested structural changes
to the time-based rate plans that were implemented in 2023.
The filing today begins an 11-month process where regulators and
interveners will review, audit and evaluate the request to ensure
the resulting prices reflect the actual cost of serving Evergy
Missouri West customers. The process will include public hearings
later in the year, which are yet to be scheduled. If approved, new
rates will become effective on January 1, 2025.
“We are investing strategically to ensure customers have
reliable, affordable energy,” said Evergy President and Chief
Executive Officer David Campbell. “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. While most area states have seen electricity costs
increase about 11 percent over the past six years, Evergy’s prices
have remained regionally competitive and even declined in some
areas,” Campbell continued.
Evergy’s request includes the recovery of investments related to
two natural gas plants to help ensure Evergy Missouri West has
sufficient generation capacity for customers and to reduce Missouri
West’s exposure to market price volatility for electricity
purchased from the market. Evergy is also asking to recover
investments in the electric grid to improve reliability and
resiliency, as well as to recognize the end of a
transmission-related credit that had been offsetting costs. Cost
reductions, including pension and benefits savings, as well as
growth in customer energy demand helped cut about $24.5 million
from the request.
As part of this request, Evergy Missouri West has asked the
commission to review a pending acquisition of 148 megawatts (or
22.2% interest) of Dogwood Energy Center, a 668 MW natural gas
plant in Pleasant Hill, Mo., as a cost-effective resource to serve
customers. Evergy Missouri West needs additional capacity and
energy resources to meet growing customer demand for energy and
reduce reliance on market-priced purchased power.
Crossroads Energy Center, a 300 megawatt natural gas plant in
Clarksdale, Miss., serves customers in Evergy Missouri West today
and helps ensure customers have the needed energy capacity for
their growing energy needs. Evergy is asking to recover the
transmission costs associated with the plant as it is a necessary
resource. Without approval to recover these costs, the benefits of
this capacity will be lost in 2029, requiring the company to find
alternative and potentially more costly ways to provide 300
megawatts of generation capacity. In past studies, Crossroads has
been identified as the most cost-efficient way to meet capacity
requirements for Evergy Missouri West customers.
The request also includes recovery of investments made to
upgrade and modernize the power grid. Evergy has replaced a large
number of aging power poles, overhead power lines, and underground
cables. Along with these projects, newly deployed automation
technology communicates grid-health indicators back to Evergy.
These new tools inform a predictive-maintenance program to reduce
outages and, when outages occur, help to reduce outage length by
isolating events and assisting in cause identification and
restoration planning.
“Evergy West customers need additional generation to meet their
growing demand for electricity. Our investment in the Dogwood
Energy Center and transmission for the Crossroads power plant are a
step in the right direction to ensure that our customers have
affordable power well into the future,” said Campbell. “These
generation investments, along with the improvements we have made to
modernize and strengthen the electrical grid, will help ensure
customers have electricity that continues to be reliable.”
*Evergy Missouri rates slide footnote
information
1) Regional state data is sourced from EIA and is comprised of
revenues and sales for all sectors, with 2023 data using a rolling
twelve-month average of total revenues and sales ending November
2023. EIA data is preliminary that is subject to change, with 2023
data to be finalized in October 2024. 2) Source: US Bureau of Labor
Statistics for historic CPI-U and uses rolling twelve-month average
ending November 2023. 3) Evergy pro forma data uses rolling
twelve-month average of total revenues and sales ending March 2023
and includes adjustments for the annualized impacts of: ACA/RECA
(implemented April 1, 2023). TDC (implemented May 1, 2023); Kansas
Income Tax reductions; and Property Tax Surcharge update; outcomes
of rate case settlement in docket 23-EKCE-775-RTS. Evergy data is
sourced from FERC Form 1 pg. 304 and general ledger and inclusive
of customer bill credits. The corresponding change in total rates
for Evergy KS Central and Evergy KS Metro were 4.9% and -9.5%,
respectively 4) The corresponding change in total rates for Evergy
MO Metro and Evergy MO West were -4.0% and 7.9%, respectively.
About Evergy
Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVRG), serves 1.7 million customers in
Kansas and Missouri. Evergy’s mission is to empower a better
future. Our focus remains on producing, transmitting and delivering
reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy for the benefit of our
stakeholders. Today, about half of Evergy’s power comes from
carbon-free sources, creating more reliable energy with less impact
to the environment. We value innovation and adaptability to give
our customers better ways to manage their energy use, to create a
safe, diverse and inclusive workplace for our employees, and to add
value for our investors. Headquartered in Kansas City, our
employees are active members of the communities we serve.
For more information about Evergy, visit us at
www.evergy.com.
Cautionary statements regarding certain
forward-looking information
Statements made in this document that are not based on
historical facts are forward-looking, may involve risks and
uncertainties, and are intended to be as of the date when made.
Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements relating to Evergy's strategic plan, including, without
limitation, those related to earnings per share, dividend,
operating and maintenance expense and capital investment goals; the
outcome of legislative efforts and regulatory and legal
proceedings; future energy demand; future power prices; plans with
respect to existing and potential future generation resources; the
availability and cost of generation resources and energy storage;
target emissions reductions; and other matters relating to expected
financial performance or affecting future operations.
Forward-looking statements are often accompanied by forward-looking
words such as "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "estimates,"
"forecasts," "should," "could," "may," "seeks," "intends,"
"proposed," "projects," "planned," "target," "outlook," "remain
confident," "goal," "will" or other words of similar meaning.
Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
the forward-looking information.
In connection with the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Evergy, Inc., Evergy
Kansas Central, Inc. and Evergy Metro, Inc. (collectively the
Evergy Companies) are providing a number of risks, uncertainties
and other factors that could cause actual results to differ from
the forward-looking information. These risks, uncertainties and
other factors include, but are not limited to: economic and weather
conditions and any impact on sales, prices and costs; changes in
business strategy or operations; the impact of federal, state and
local political, legislative, judicial and regulatory actions or
developments, including deregulation, re-regulation, securitization
and restructuring of the electric utility industry; decisions of
regulators regarding, among other things, customer rates and the
prudency of operational decisions such as capital expenditures and
asset retirements; changes in applicable laws, regulations, rules,
principles or practices, or the interpretations thereof, governing
tax, accounting and environmental matters, including air and water
quality and waste management and disposal; the impact of climate
change, including increased frequency and severity of significant
weather events and the extent to which counterparties are willing
to do business with, finance the operations of or purchase energy
from the Evergy Companies due to the fact that the Evergy Companies
operate coal-fired generation; prices and availability of
electricity and natural gas in wholesale markets; market perception
of the energy industry and the Evergy Companies; the impact of
future Coronavirus (COVID-19) variants on, among other things,
sales, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and
cash flows, and also on operational issues, such as supply chain
issues and the availability and ability of the Evergy Companies'
employees and suppliers to perform the functions that are necessary
to operate the Evergy Companies; changes in the energy trading
markets in which the Evergy Companies participate, including
retroactive repricing of transactions by regional transmission
organizations (RTO) and independent system operators; financial
market conditions and performance, disruptions in the banking
industry, including changes in interest rates and credit spreads
and in availability and cost of capital and the effects on
derivatives and hedges, nuclear decommissioning trust and pension
plan assets and costs; impairments of long-lived assets or
goodwill; credit ratings; inflation rates; effectiveness of risk
management policies and procedures and the ability of
counterparties to satisfy their contractual commitments; impact of
physical and cybersecurity breaches, criminal activity, terrorist
attacks, acts of war and other disruptions to the Evergy Companies'
facilities or information technology infrastructure or the
facilities and infrastructure of third-party service providers on
which the Evergy Companies rely; impact of the Ukrainian and Middle
East conflicts on the global energy market; ability to carry out
marketing and sales plans; cost, availability, quality and timely
provision of equipment, supplies, labor and fuel; ability to
achieve generation goals and the occurrence and duration of planned
and unplanned generation outages; delays and cost increases of
generation, transmission, distribution or other projects; the
Evergy Companies' ability to manage their transmission and
distribution development plans and transmission joint ventures; the
inherent risks associated with the ownership and operation of a
nuclear facility, including environmental, health, safety,
regulatory and financial risks; workforce risks, including those
related to the Evergy Companies' ability to attract and retain
qualified personnel, maintain satisfactory relationships with their
labor unions and manage costs of, or changes in, wages, retirement,
health care and other benefits; disruption, costs and uncertainties
caused by or related to the actions of individuals or entities,
such as activist shareholders or special interest groups, that seek
to influence Evergy's strategic plan, financial results or
operations; the impact of changing expectations and demands of the
Evergy Companies' customers, regulators, investors and
stakeholders, including heightened emphasis on environmental,
social and governance concerns; the possibility that strategic
initiatives, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and
long-term financial plans, may not create the value that they are
expected to achieve in a timely manner or at all; difficulties in
maintaining relationships with customers, employees, regulators or
suppliers; and other risks and uncertainties.
This list of factors is not all-inclusive because it is not
possible to predict all factors. You should also carefully consider
the information contained in the Evergy Companies' other filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additional risks
and uncertainties are discussed from time to time in current,
quarterly and annual reports filed by the Evergy Companies with the
SEC. New factors emerge from time to time, and it's not possible
for the Evergy Companies to predict all such factors, nor can the
Evergy Companies assess the impact of each such factor on the
business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of
factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those
contained or implied in any forward-looking statement. Given these
uncertainties, undue reliance should not be placed on these
forward-looking statements. The Evergy Companies undertake no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, except as required by law.
Available Information
The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy
and information statements and other information regarding issuers
that file electronically with the SEC at sec.gov. Additionally,
information about the Evergy Companies, including their combined
annual reports on Form 10-K, combined quarterly reports on Form
10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports
filed with the SEC, is also available through the Evergy Companies'
website, http://investors.evergy.com. Such reports are accessible
at no charge and are made available as soon as reasonably practical
after such material is filed with or furnished to the SEC.
Investors should note that the Evergy Companies announce
material financial information in SEC filings, press releases and
public conference calls. In accordance with SEC guidelines, the
Evergy Companies also use the Investor Relations section of their
website, http://investors.evergy.com, to communicate with
investors. It is possible that the financial and other information
posted there could be deemed to be material information. The
information on the Evergy Companies' website is not part of this
document.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240202673788/en/
Media Contact: Gina Penzig Director, Corporate
Communications Phone: 785-508-2410 Gina.Penzig@evergy.com Media
line: 888-613-0003
Courtney Lewis Sr. Communications Manager, Media Phone:
816-878-9650 Courtney.Lewis@evergy.com Media line: 888-613-0003
Investor Contact: Pete Flynn Director, Investor Relations
Phone: 816-652-1060 Peter.Flynn@evergy.com
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