Large Westar Customers Want No Rate Consolidation

JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An attorney for half a dozen of Westar Energy Inc.'s largest industrial customers told Kansas regulators Monday that they should never consolidate the utility's electric rates.

The state's largest electric company was formed in the 1990s through the merger of a Topeka utility and a Wichita-based business. It charges different rates in its northern and southern divisions, but the Kansas Corporation Commission has worked to close the gap.

Westar argues that its rates for most customers are close enough to make consolidation relatively painless. It has asked regulators to approve what amounts to the first phase.

The commission plans to finish hearings this week and has until Oct. 26 to rule. It could order a full consolidation of rates; accept Westar's proposal to go to a single charge for some items, such as transmission costs, on all customers' bills, or block consolidation.

A decade ago, questions about Westar's rates roiled Kansas politics, pitting legislators and other officials in the south-central part of the state against those in the northeast. Part of the current debate centers on concerns that the federal government's attempts to lower U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will force costly upgrades at Westar's coal-fired power plants — and about who would pay for them.