KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Utility bills are top of mind this summer with inflation and everyone cranking up their air conditioners.
Proposed rate increases by Evergy could add a couple bucks to your bill each month.
For those living in the Evergy Metro area, including Lenexa and Overland Park, you could see an extra three dollars on your monthly bill.
Those under Evergy Central in Lawrence and Olathe could see an increase of more than $14 a month.
Evergy says the rate hike is necessary to provide reliable service.
The company says it needs two substations, upgrades to three existing substations and to extend or rebuild 31 miles of transmission lines.
In addition, Evergy will supply power to large new developments like the Panasonic plant in De Soto.
According to documents from Evergy it will take about 200 to 250-megawatts of demand.
That is equivalent to the electric power needs of a small city.
Evergy also says it's getting inquiries for data centers like the Meta Center announced last year for the Northland as well as new manufacturing and hydrogen production.
In its first increase request to the Kansas Corporation Commission, Evergy says while neighboring power companies have raised rates by more than 10 percent, Evergy claims their rates have gone up by 0.1 percent.
Those filings give a glimpse at another kind of increase we may be facing within the next year.
One that would help pay for the massive grid improvements needed to handle Panasonic's new factory.
Ratepayers say any increases won't be met with much joy.
"It just gets harder and harder," Overland Park resident Rebecca Shearer said. "Some people's rates are going up almost $15 per month. Now I really feel for those folks. Particularly seniors, like myself, who are living on social security."
Evergy says despite the hikes, adding big customers and industry makes the overall system more efficient and cheaper in the long run for ratepayers.
“Bringing Panasonic to Kansas will not cause an increase in rates for Kansas rate payers," Kansas Deputy Communications Director Zach Fletcher. "It will actually cause downward pressure on rates for other customers based on the amount of power they will use. While utility infrastructure is always a discussion point in these projects, we believe that these types of investments will continue to have a positive economic impact and help reduce the burden on Kansas rate payers.”
It's not all bad news to others, who believe the benefits the factory brings to the state are worth a few bucks on their bill.
"I'm okay with a couple dollars a month on my bill, I can handle that. I think it's important what they're doing," said Debbie Brown of Overland Park.
The potential rate hike would not only to to the Panasonic factory.
Evergy says it's also necessary to get ahead of demand for even more expected heavy users and to cover new generation needs when the company decommissions its Wolf Creek nuclear plant.
KSHB 41 received the following statement from Panasonic on the matter.
While Panasonic does not have visibility into Evergy’s rates for the state as a whole, we do know that Panasonic is making a significant investment in upgrading Evergy’s infrastructure to be able to serve the factory. Panasonic will pay for all costs immediately attributable to our operations. The other costs cited are system upgrades that will benefit all Evergy customers and system reliability as a whole. We are grateful to Evergy and our other regional partners helping to bring the plant to life and look forward to ensuring the benefits of Panasonic’s presence in the region are widely felt, including through the growth of affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy infrastructure.
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