Evergy has filed a request and supporting documentation with the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to recover certain investments it made to improve reliability and strengthen the power grid for customers in its Evergy Kansas Central service area.
The filing will go through an eight-month process where the request will be evaluated before the KCC, with new prices to be effective from late September 2025. Prices for Evergy Kansas Metro, which serves customers in Lyndon, Edgerton, Overland Park and other communities near the Kansas City metro area, will not be impacted.
“Evergy continues to focus on keeping rates as low as possible despite inflation and the need to invest in maintaining and improving our system to meet the needs of our customers,” said David Campbell, chairman and chief executive officer. “Investments supporting reliable service are at the core of our request.”
In the filed request, Evergy has asked to increase rates by $196 million for its Evergy Kansas Central service area, which includes approximately 735,000 customers in Topeka, Pittsburg, Wichita and other communities Evergy serves in the eastern third of Kansas. The average residential bill will increase about $13.05 (10.36%) per month (based on average residential household usage of about 900 kWh per month), if the Commission approves the requested amount.
Under the filing, Evergy has also proposed a new program, the Evergy Stay Connected Pilot program, to help qualified income-eligible Kansas customers remain current on their account and avoid potential disconnection. The three-year program will offer monthly bill credits and help income-eligible Kansas residents remain current on their account.
To enroll, customers are required to be current on their account or enrolled in a payment plan. The program is modeled on Evergy’s Economic Relief Pilot Program in Missouri, which has provided assistance to low-income customers in that state for more than 15 years.
Evergy has invested about $1 billion in infrastructure serving Evergy Kansas Central customers. These infrastructure investments include technology upgrades and grid improvements to replace aging equipment, creating a smarter, more resilient power grid that is more reliable and efficient for customers. Grid investments were focused on outage prevention and response, including automation and sensor technology used to better identify outages and isolate outages to fewer customers.
In 2024, Evergy completed the installation of an advanced distribution management system, a new software platform, to allow Evergy to optimize its distribution network and increase automation of outage restoration. Evergy is not seeking recovery of costs related to the Panasonic battery plant under construction in DeSoto, Kan. Projects at Evergy’s Jeffrey, La Cygne and Lawrence power plants are included in the nearly $1 billion invested in Kansas to help ensure their availability to customers.
In 2024, Evergy announced a proposal to build two new baseload natural gas power plants and additional solar energy in Kansas. The two new natural gas plants will be the baseload 24/7 generation plants built since the Wolf Creek nuclear plant was commissioned in 1985.
The new gas plants are required to ensure Kansas has the energy necessary to reliably power its economy well into the future and to serve the needs of customers by increasing generation capacity in times of high demand. The proposed new power plants are not included in the rate review. Evergy is looking for approval from the KCC to build these plants and expects a decision by the end of 2025.
Moreover, Evergy will be asking the Commission to establish a new rate structure to serve prospective new industrial customers in a separate proceeding. The proceeding will establish rates ensuring new customers pay costs associated with serving them, including the use of the shared power grid, and credit them for grid benefits they may bring such as private generation or demand response capability, which can lower costs for all customers in the future.
