TOPEKA - A unanimous settlement agreement approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) this morning will result in a net rate reduction for Black Hills Energy customers. Beginning January 1, customers will see a credit on their monthly bills, the Tax Adjustment Rider, based on federal and state tax reforms. The Tax Adjustment Rider will refund $9.1 million to customers over a 3-year period. For individual ratepayers, that equals 5.4606% of base rates (the non-commodity cost portion of the bill).

In addition, the settlement agreement ensured the continued use of the Gas System Reliability Surcharge (GSRS) to fund Black Hills’ accelerated pipeline replacement program, and approved an increase to the monthly customer charge.

The GSRS, currently a separate line item charge generating $6.1 million per year, will become part of base rates to continue to fund system integrity and reliability improvements. The customer charge will increase from $16.94 to $18.50 per month.  Combined with the tax credit, the result of the three actions will produce a net rate reduction for Black Hills customers over the next three years.

This order stems from an application filed by Black Hills in May requesting to adjust its rates. It does not address extraordinary natural gas costs incurred during February’s winter weather event.  Those costs are addressed in Docket 21-BHCG-334-GIG, currently pending before the Commission.

Black Hills serves 117,000 Kansas customers in 50 counties.

Today’s order can be viewed at: https://estar.kcc.ks.gov/estar/ViewFile.aspx/20211230102459.pdf?Id=100b014b-3fbc-4604-a58e-6ab04cb14644

A recording of the Commission Business Meeting is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtUsl6IhG7g