Jun 5 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Dion Lefler The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Margaret Miller's a big fan of fans.

Box fans, ceiling fans. Fans in the living room. Fans in the kitchen.

The fans cut the need for air conditioning, which keeps electricity usage down, which allows Miller and her husband, Paul, to stay on Westar Energy's lowest rate.

"We're big on electric fans," Miller said. "I turn them on when I go into a room and turn them off when I leave."

Now, for the Millers and 15,000 other customers like them on Westar's "conservation rate," keeping track of electricity usage is going to be more important than ever.

As a result of its last rate-setting case, Westar is making big changes to the conservation rate.

For some, the changes could hurt. Others will likely see a slight discount.

Here's how it all will work:

-- Customers who now receive the conservation rate can buy power at a base price of 3 ½ cents a kilowatt-hour -- a discount of about 35 percent off the standard summer rate. Existing conservation-rate customers are grandfathered in and will get a slight increase in allowable usage. But if they move, shut off their service or go over their allowable usage even for one month, they'll pay higher electric bills for life. No new customers will be allowed to go on the program.

-- Customers who didn't sign up for the conservation rate in the past but use less than the program's allowable usage -- now about 900 kilowatt-hours a month in June, July, August and September -- will automatically get a discount. But it will be much smaller than the discount under the old conservation rate.

Westar is making the changes to simplify billing across its two service territories, the Southern Division, formerly known as KGE, and the Northern Division, formerly KPL.

"We were looking for places to make the rates consistent between the two territories and simplify our (rate) tariffs," company spokeswoman Gina Penzig said.

Of Westar's 660,000 total customers, about 310,000 reside in the Southern Division and 350,000 in the Northern Division.

About 15,000 customers, all in the Southern Division, are on the conservation rate now.

It is not yet known how many customers across both systems will qualify for the new discount, but it is expected to be in the tens of thousands, Penzig said.

Miller, who 20 years ago helped found a state agency to advocate for residential utility customers, doesn't like the changes much.

"The worst thing is, the lowest rate at 3 ½ cents is going to die," she said. "I can't tell you who's on it, but I would be fairly sure they're mostly older. People aren't going to live forever and people are going to move and some are going to go over (their allowed usage)."

Miller and her husband regularly read their own electric meter to make sure they don't go over the allowable usage and get kicked out of the program, she said.

"When it begins to get to maybe 600 kilowatt-hours, we start being really careful," she said.

Conservation-rate customer Emily Kelly also doesn't like the changes to the conservation rate.

She doesn't think she uses enough electricity to be in danger of running over the limit and getting kicked out of the program.

"The only thing that bothers me is, if I move, they'll take it away," she said. "I've been on it forever. It does make a difference."

How much of a difference?

Penzig said Westar estimates that the average customer on the conservation rate saves about $12 a month.

But customers at 900 kilowatt-hours' usage save more.

Excluding surcharges and taxes, a customer using that much electricity would pay an energy charge of $51.13 a month on the standard rates, compared to only $31.50 on the conservation rate. That's a difference of $19.63.

Under the new plan, the 900-kilowatt-hour customer who was not already on the conservation rate will save about $5.60 a month compared to standard rates.

David Springe, consumer counsel for the Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board, said he sees the changes as a mixed bag.

He opposed the phaseout of the existing conservation rate. But he said he favors the aspect of the new approach that will automatically give a discount, albeit a smaller one, to all low-usage customers.

He said it's difficult to gauge the overall impact because of other changes that came out of the rate case.

The Kansas Corporation Commission, which regulates rates, allowed Westar to place extra charges on customers' bills to recoup fuel and environmental costs.

"At the end of the day, everyone is paying higher rates," Springe said. "That's just a function of what the commission did in the last rate case."

Commission spokeswoman Rosemary Foreman acknowledged that rates have gone up, but only after a lengthy process of hearings and analysis in which the company proved it was entitled to an increase.

"That's just the nature of a rate case," she said.

Foreman said the important thing is for customers to be aware of their own power usage to get the biggest discounts available to them, while also conserving energy.

 

Reach Dion Lefler at 268-6527.