Add the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools District to the growing list of those concerned with proposed utility rate increases by the Board of Public Utilities.

The Kansas City, Kan., Board of Education voted for a resolution tonight declaring opposition to the proposed changes, which could bring an increase of 50 percent to the district's utility costs.

Of the district's total utility costs, some 83 percent of it comes from electricity usage. Under the proposed rates, the electricity rate would increase by seven percent.

"This is significantly high," said Kelli Mather, chief financial officer of the district. "The consumer price index is only 1.1 percent. If that stays annually (for four years), it's 28 percent just in electrical costs."

Add in water and other costs, the district's total bill could go up by 50 percent.

As expected, the resolution received unanimous support from board members.

"The city gets free electricity," said Richard Kaminski, board member. "The county portion gets nothing and the school district gets nothing."

KCK Public Schools Superintendent Cynthia Lane said the district has "significant concerns about the rate increases." A lot of the district's concerns stem from lost funding at the state level.

Earlier this month, the Piper School District officially pledged its opposition to the rate increases, along with numerous businesses in Fairfax.

The Board of Public Utilities have amended its meeting schedule for next month.

The board changed two meeting dates and will meet on Sept. 8 and Sept. 22, rather than Sept. 1 and Sept. 15 respectively.

The meetings will remain in the same location – the board room located at 540 Minnesota Ave.

(Information from a reader)

Water was temporarily shut-off this afternoon on one Kansas City, Kan., street.

Those on 77th Street and Riverview had water shut-off by the Board of Public Utilities.

Water was back on shortly after 3:30 this afternoon.

View Larger Map

It turns out the Piper Board of Education appreciates utility rates increases as much as the general public does.

The board unanimously passed a resolution tonight stating the Piper School District's opposition to the rate increases proposed by the Board of Public Utilities that would affect larger customers.

The proposed changes would hit Piper with an additional $250,000 in utility costs according to Superintendent Steve Adams.

"It could amount to 150 percent of what our current rates our," Adams said. "It would behove us to not support the increases."

Adams called for the increases to reflect the consumer price index.

During brief discussion concerning the resolution, Adams brought up the possibility of approaching Wyandotte County's other school districts and Kansas City Kansas Community College in forming an alliance against the rate increases.

The $250,000 increase in the district's utility budget would certainly be an issue. The district is levying approximately $500,000 less in property tax dollars than it did last year.

Future cuts to the state budget would add further strain.

The Board of Public Utilities' board voted this week to increase electric and water rates between now and 2013.

The rate increases were required to fund electric and water capital projects, according to BPU.

“BPU electric rates are currently well below the national average and lower than most surrounding utilities,” said David Mehlhaff, BPU spokesperson. “Based on external recommendations, and with more than $300 million in capital improvements needed to maintain the integrity of our utility systems over the next five years, adjustments were necessary at this time.”

A summary of the rate increases:

• A 7.0 percent increase in electric base rates for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The electric rate increase would increase a monthly bill by $4.42 a month.
• An 8.0 percent increase in the water base rate for 2010 and 2011 and a 7.5 percent increase for 2012 and 2013. In 2010, the rate change would increase the monthly bill by $3.42. In remaining years, the increase dips to $3.25.
• BPU would change its winter and summer cycles billing method. Rather than have a six-month cycle for both winter and summer, BPU will decrease the summer cycle to four months and extend the winter cycle to eight months.
• An "Environmental Surcharge" would be applied. The surcharge would add an additional 38-51 cents a month to the bill.

Among the projects funded include a $74 million combustion gas turbine generator at BPU's Nearman plant; $51 million of upgrades to plants at Quindaro and Nearman; $56 million in power distribution lines; $33 million in electric transmission projects; $42 million in electric substation improvements and $13 million in the utility's automated meter intelligence project.

The rate increases will be in effect on July 1.

Despite the rate increases, BPU believes they have exhibited fiscal responsibility in recent years, most notably shedding 44 jobs over the past five years. 

“As a not-for-profit publicly owned utility, BPU has a responsibility to ensure the long-term reliability and dependability of utility services to this community,” Mehlhaff said.

The Board of Public Utilities Ethics Commission will meet this Wednesday at the West Wyandotte Branch of the Kansas City, Kan., Public Library.

The meeting will be held in the library's Conference Room A.

It begins at 5 p.m.

About $15,000 in copper was swiped from the Board of Public Utilities earlier this week.

Kansas City, Kan., police report that a facility located at 9225 Metropolitan Avenue was burglarized of copper wire on May 31.

BPU was listed as the "victim" in a police report about the incident. An employee of Whelan Security reported the theft to police.

View Larger Map

The Board of Public Utilities' energy rate component for this summer will be lowered by 27 percent.

The summer ERC, the rate that runs from May – October, is BPU's cost of fuel to generate electricity and the cost of power that's required to be purchased on the market.

The lower rate should result in a lower monthly bill for customers, BPU says.

“We are pleased that we’ve been able to reduce the 2010 Summer ERC utility rate for our customers,” said Don Gray, BPU's General Manager.  “As a result of this adjustment, the average BPU residential customer’s electric bill should be reduced by approximately $10.00 per month during this summer period compared to last summer.”

The rate will be adjusted to 0.02248, a reduction of .00365.

The Board of Public Utilities will be hold two rate hearings this week, with the first coming tonight.

A 7 percent increase in the electric base rate has been proposed for 2010–2013, while an 8 percent increase in water fees has been proposed for 2010 and 2011. Water rates, under the plan, would increase 7.5 percent in 2012 and 2013.

Tonight's rate hearing is at BPU headquarters and begins at 7 p.m. The public can offer comments and learn about the proposed rate increases.

BPU is located at 540 Minnesota Ave. A similar meeting will be held at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

All the proposed changes, from a previous story:

• A 7.0 percent increase in electric base rates for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The electric rate increase would increase a monthly bill by $4.42 a month.
• An 8.0 percent increase in the water base rate for 2010 and 2011 and a 7.5 percent increase for 2012 and 2013. In 2010, the rate change would increase the monthly bill by $3.42. In remaining years, the increase dips to $3.25.
• BPU would change its winter and summer cycles billing method. Rather than have a six-month cycle for both winter and summer, BPU will decrease the summer cycle to four months and extend the winter cycle to eight months.
• An "Environmental Surcharge" would be applied. The surcharge would add an additional 38-51 cents a month to the bill.

With a very low attendance at recent board meetings and public forums, I thought I would grab information sheets provided by the Board of Public Utilities and post them for readers to look at.

Click each photo for a larger version.

The Board of Public Utilities held its third and final public forum setting Tuesday night at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

In front of particularly small crowd, BPU officials made a pitch on proposed rate increases for both electricity and water.

The primary reasons, BPU says? Money and a down economy.

"It takes $25 million a month to operate BPU," said David Mehlhaff, Public Affairs Officer for BPU. "Electric sales are currently down and we've seen a reduction or revenue. A lot of it has to do with the current economy."

BPU's proposed rate changes:

• A 7.0 percent increase in electric base rates for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The electric rate increase would increase a monthly bill by $4.42 a month.
• An 8.0 percent increase in the water base rate for 2010 and 2011 and a 7.5 percent increase for 2012 and 2013. In 2010, the rate change would increase the monthly bill by $3.42. In remaining years, the increase dips to $3.25.
• BPU would change its winter and summer cycles billing method. Rather than have a six-month cycle for both winter and summer, BPU will decrease the summer cycle to four months and extend the winter cycle to eight months.
• An "Environmental Surcharge" would be applied. The surcharge would add an additional 38-51 cents a month to the bill.

Mehlhaff said that about $250 million in capital improvements are required over the next five years to fund it.

"We have delayed a lot of improvement projects," he said.

Those energy/electric projects include a $74 million combustion gas turbine generator at BPU's Nearman plant; $51 million of upgrades to plants at Quindaro and Nearman; $56 million in power distribution lines; $33 million in electric transmission projects; $42 million in electric substation improvements and $13 million in the utility's automated meter intelligence project.

About $60 million of water capital projects are on the table as well.

BPU Director of Finance Lori Austin added that BPU operates with only "20-45 days of operating cash on hand."

"We need to maintain a strong credit line," she said.

Rate hearings will be held in early May.

Kansas City Kansas Community College will host a Board of Public Utilities rate hearing tonight at 6:30 p.m.

BPU will discuss possible rate adjustments, modifications on the bill process and capital improvement projects.

Along with tonight's meeting, BPU will schedule two days of public hearings on Monday, May 3, at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, May 4, at 9 a.m.

Both hearings will be held at the BPU central office, located at 540 Minnesota Ave.

The Board of Public Utilities Ethics Commission will meet next Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the West Wyandotte Branch of the Public Library.

The library's Conference Room A will be the location of the meeting.

 

Preliminary financial numbers in February for the Board of Public Utilities indicate that the amount of operating revenues for this year were higher than expected.

While not official (yet), a boost in residential and commercial sales have led to about $5 million more operating revenues than the budgeted amount for the January 1 – February 28, 2010 time period.

"We had a good month of February," said Lori Austin, BPU's manager accounting and finance/CFO. "We had an increase in both commercial and residential sales."

A look at the numbers:

• Budgeting a total of $11.3 million in residential sales of energy and water, BPU has taken in $12.7 million. Still, the number is down somewhat from last year's $12.8 million at this time.
• After expecting $11.7 million in commercial sales, BPU generated about $12.3 million operating revenues so far this year. Like residential sales, it's a decrease from the 2009 number. In this instance, however, the drop-off was dramatic – about $1 million less.
• BPU saw a significant boost in its revenues from towel and pole attachment rentals. BPU collected $2.4 million in revenues so far this year after just expecting $171,992.
• Overall, BPU's total operating revenues after the month of February were $46,674,547. A figure of $41,855,930 was expected. The $46.7 million figure is more than last year's $42.8 million at this point.

Pictured: Board members David Alvey and Robert Milan observe budget numbers in their board packets.