Kansas retirees push back on Evergy’s bid to hike electricity prices and profits

Evergy executives hope to grow profits by 6% to 8% a year through a combination of cutting costs, increasing prices and selling more electricity.
Retirees living on fixed incomes, and their advocates, say Evergy’s plan to hike electricity prices in Kansas puts profits before people — with potentially dire outcomes for the well-being of older Kansans.

The company is asking the state’s energy regulators for permission to increase its annual revenue by about $218 million in Kansas. If regulators sign off, some of this extra revenue would go toward spending on new infrastructure and some would land in the pockets of shareholders.

Most of the new revenue would come from charging former Westar customers more on their electricity bills. Households in Westar’s former territory would see their monthly bills go up by more than $14 on average, Evergy has said. That’s compared to an average hike of about $3.50 in the former Kansas City Power & Light territory.