Evergy’s Kansas Energy Plan Is Outdated Before Its Release

TOPEKA, KS -- Evergy, the largest electric utility in Kansas and the second largest in Missouri, filed its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with Kansas regulators today. As expected, the plan is substantially similar to the utility’s Missouri IRP, which was filed late last month. As the Sierra Club noted at the time, it is promising that Evergy proposes to add 3,200 megawatts of solar by 2032 and 1,000 megawatts of wind power by 2026, and that it proposes to close the 66-year-old Lawrence coal plant by 2023 and Jeffrey Unit 3 by 2030. Unfortunately, Evergy still plans to burn coal at several facilities until 2039 and beyond, including at Jeffery Units 1 and 2 and La Cygne Unit 2. Retiring these coal plants sooner--as Evergy adds renewable energy generation, energy storage, and increased energy efficiency--could save customers hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade.

This is Evergy’s first-ever IRP to be filed with Kansas regulators. Sierra Club previously advocated for the IRP during the merger of KCP&L and Westar that formed Evergy in 2018.

Sierra Club has repeatedly elevated the devastating financial, environmental, and health impacts of Evergy’s coal plants. Evergy initially received an ‘F’ in Sierra Club’s Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges report, which evaluated utilities on how their energy choices will impact the climate crisis. Evergy's grade would move from an F to a D if the utility takes no action beyond what is proposed in its IRP, indicating that Evergy is taking steps in the right direction, albeit at a dangerously slow pace.

Evergy’s coal fleet is also much more expensive than other sources of power.  In 2019, Sierra Club released a report finding that Evergy’s Kansas coal fleet lost $267 million from 2015 through 2018 and that, “Evergy’s La Cygne and Jeffrey plants combined are expected to lose $847 million over the next 20 years,” among other findings. Evergy’s customers in both Missouri and Kansas will have to pay for expensive coal plants in Kansas.  

Surprisingly, Evergy’s Kansas IRP did not include plans for securitization, a tool to refinance coal debt that passed through the Kansas legislature with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Governor Kelly last month. Missouri recently passed similar legislation. Nevertheless, Evergy has given no indication that it intends to refinance its coal debt, even though doing so would likely reduce costs by over $1 billion and lower ratepayer bills.

“Evergy’s Kansas IRP proposes to continue operating 80 percent of its coal fleet beyond 2030, a decision that is wildly inconsistent with a low-cost grid, federal emissions targets, and mitigating the worst consequences of the climate crisis,” said Ty Gorman, Kansas Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “This IRP doesn’t include input from Evergy customers struggling to pay bills during the economic crisis. It also omits opportunities for immense customer savings from it’s models, including securitization of costly coal plants, federal incentives like energy storage tax credits, and investment in low-cost demand management and distributed generation technologies. There are many plans Evergy could make if the utility wanted to offer Kansans clean electricity at a lower price. Instead, the utility’s first Kansas IRP suggests increasing customer bills by burning fossil fuels when it is no longer economically viable to do so. Luckily, it’s not too late for our KCC utility regulators to compel Evergy to change course.”

Evergy customers can click here to tell the KCC what they would like to see changed in Evergy’s plans.

Sierra Club is a member of Build Power Mo-Kan, an energy justice coalition working collaboratively to expand renewable energy and access to weatherization and assistance programs while holding electric utilities in Western Missouri and Kansas accountable to the needs of their customers. Content on the Build Power Mo-Kan website is available in English and Spanish.