TOPEKA – This morning, the Kansas Corporation Commission issued an order calling on the company that authored part two of the Kansas Electric Rate Study to explain why the public version of the report is heavily redacted and to file an updated version by July 28. In the new public version of the report, redactions are to be removed or legitimate justifications for confidentiality provided.

The report AECOM filed with the Commission on July 2 drew questions from Commission staff and criticism from other stakeholder groups upon discovering that much of the information used to form conclusions in the report was deemed confidential. Commission rules allow confidential designations to protect sensitive data, such as customer and pricing information, but confidential treatment must be justified.

The rate study was commissioned by the 2019 Legislature in Substitute for Senate Bill 69 to assist future legislative and regulatory efforts in developing energy policy. The large volume of confidential designations will prevent the Legislature from fully viewing the study.

“A meaningful publicly-available report is needed,” said Commission Chair Susan Duffy. “The findings in this report are important to Kansans because they will likely form the basis of future energy policy. The Commission strongly encourages AECOM and the utilities to redact only critically necessary information.”  

Commission staff is working with AECOM to examine the confidentiality issues and assist in submitting a revised public version of the study.

The utilities subject to the study included electric public utilities, electric cooperative public utilities, and the three largest municipally-owned or operated electric utilities by customer count. 

Today’s order can be viewed at https://estar.kcc.ks.gov/estar/ViewFile.aspx/20200714104830.pdf?Id=be8909d0-b2b4-4d92-b8f4-1b2f10232815
The rate study submitted on July 2 by AECOM can be viewed at https://kcc.ks.gov/electric/kansas-electric-rate-study