Westar Energy seeks $19.7M rate increase - Kansas City Business Journal:

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million, or 1.5 In a Tuesday release, the Topeka-based electric utilityt (NYSE: WR) said it seeks the rate increase to recover costs for expenditures in the seconds phase of its Emporia Energy Center andtwo company-ownedc wind farms in Kansas that were under construction but not in operatioj when its 2008 rate case concluded. The request, if approvesd by the KCC, would mean a $9.7 milliojn increase in the company’s north which includes Olatheand Lawrence, and a $10 million increasw in its south region, which includesd the Wichita area, Westar said. A residential customef using 900 kilowatt hours in Westar’s north region could expec an increase of about $1.
43 a month, the company said. In the south region, a residential customer using 900 kWh could expectf an increase of 71 centsa month. If the new average residential rate wouldbe 9.33 cents per kWh for Westar’s north region and 9.11 centsz per kWh for its south The average national residential rate is 11.52 cents per kWh, the compant said. The rate review was part of the agreement reache by all parties in the2008 case, whicg the KCC approved in January, Westar “Although electric rates are going up, we managef our natural gas plant and wind farm construction costs and they came in more than $22 million undeer the original cost estimates and the amount s the KCC indicated would be allowed for recovery in Westar CEO Bill Moore said in the release.
“Wed continue to work to meet our customers’ electricithy needs as well as to develop Kansas renewabldeenergy resources.” Westar is the largest electric utility in Kansas, providinyg electric service to about 681,000 customersa in the state. It also has abouty 6,800 megawatts of electric generation capacity and operates and coordinateds morethan 35,000 miles of electric distributioh and transmission lines.