Its not exactly unusual for customers to complain about their electricity bills. But repeated rate hikes over the past decade have made Westar Energys customers particularly mad. And last years merger with Kansas City Power and Light only served to keep the companys finances and its profit margin in public view.
Residential and industrial customers have now taken their angst to the Kansas Statehouse. The result: at least half a dozen proposals aimed at changing the way electric utilities can set rates and evaluating how they got so high in the first place.
Christina Amerin, a teacher who lives near Junction City, put solar panels on her house a few years ago to counter the rising electricity rates she was seeing. But that hasnt worked as well as shed hoped.
This past September, Westar started assessing an additional demand charge on customers who generate some of their own electricity based on how much power they use between the hours of 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays.
I wanted to take my energy usage into my own hands, Amerin said. Now I feel that I am being punished for that.
The new demand charge has prompted many solar users to completely change their daily routines or deal with monthly bills as much as $90 higher than theyve been used to.
Advocates with the Climate and Energy Project say its just an underhanded move by Westar to discourage individuals from finding ways to generate their own electricity.
Amerin recently testified before the Kansas Senate Utilities Committee in support of a bill that would eliminate the demand fee and prohibit utilities from charging customers more simply because they have a solar panel or a micro wind turbine at their house.
Rachel Krause told the committee she had to start nagging her family to watch their electricity usage in the afternoons. Shes worried what will happen when the demand charge goes up in the summer.
Is my family not going to be able to use air conditioning between 2 and 7 on weekday afternoons?, she asked. Kids are home during the summer, hows that supposed to work?
For Westar executives, thats kind of the point. They want people to use less electricity during peak hours.
They argue the demand fee also helps offset a de facto subsidy solar and wind users get because they pay less each month, but still require the same infrastructure as customers who rely exclusively on the grid.
Clean energy groups and environmentalists have banded together with industries, and business groups to push several pieces of legislation aimed at curbing rising electric utility costs.
The Kansas Industrial Consumers group is advocating for an independent evaluation of major utility companies rates. They want the state to study how rates in Kansas compare to other states, what capital investments utilities have made in the past decade, and whether those investments have paid off.
