Liberty electric rates to increase Aug. 3 after PSC approves phased rollout
What do you think?
Liberty Utilities electric customers will begin seeing higher bills starting Aug. 3 after the Missouri Public Service Commission approved the company’s request to begin a phased-in rate increase.
That is less than the $152.8 million annual increase the company originally requested.
Rather than taking effect all at once, the increase will be phased in over three years, with about one-third of the approved increase added each year.
According to terms of the order from January, Liberty says:
The average residential electric customer using about 1,000 kilowatt hours per month would see a total monthly bill increase of about:
$7.83 in year one (an approximately 4.9% increase over current rates)
$8.91 in year two (an approximately 5.31% increase over year one), and
$8.94 in year three (an approximately 5.06% increase over year two).
The current total bill for residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per month is about $159.91. Based on today’s rates, the proposed total bill after three years would be $185.60. This is about a 16.1% increase in the total bill, which includes base rates, fuel costs, and other charges.
The commission said Liberty was required to improve its billing and customer service before any rate increase could take effect. Commissioners found the utility met those requirements after maintaining the required performance metrics for three consecutive months, from January through March 2026.
Missouri Public Service Commission staff reviewed approximately 466,000 customer bills and found only a small number of instances where Liberty did not meet the agreed-upon standards.
The commission said the company achieved more than 99% compliance with the required billing and customer service metrics.
As part of the order, Liberty must continue reporting its performance to the commission every three months.
The utility also must hire an independent third-party auditor to review customer billing accuracy, billing timeliness, customer service and customer satisfaction.
The commission’s order also requires Liberty to forgive $8.5 million in past-due customer balances through a targeted relief program that will be developed with stakeholders.
Key projects and initiatives intended to benefit customers:
These investments help improve Liberty’s service and strengthen our system against extreme weather and other challenges, so we can keep the lights on and respond quickly to prevent and shorten outages.
Those projects include:
Increasing capacity to support energy demand and protect reliability by upgrading or rebuilding 23 substations across Liberty’s electric service area and investing in improvements to our Ozark Beach hydroelectric and State Line Combined Cycle plants that help them to run more efficiently. This supports increased energy generation at the plants and reliability during periods of extreme weather.
Reducing transmission costs and improving reliability for customers across Liberty’s electric service area including Missouri by upgrading more than 80 miles of transmission lines and doubling capacity with a new 25-mile transmission line between Riverton and Neosho in Kansas.
Improving response to customers and reducing the duration of outages with new service centers in Aurora and Bolivar that serve as a base of operations for line and substation crews, construction planners, and other Liberty personnel.
Boosting capacity and reliability in downtown Joplin by converting to a 12kV system from an outdated 4kV system and building a new distribution line in Branson to accommodate growth and increasing demand.
Improving reliability by reinforcing or replacing approximately 2,300 poles to strengthen our infrastructure against extreme weather, installing approximately 5,100 wildlife guards that protect our lines and substations against animal-related outages, and sectionalizing existing circuits to quickly and efficiently reduce the number of customers impacted by outages.
Protecting our infrastructure and the grid by installing physical security and cybersecurity technology at substations – security measures enhance customer reliability, personnel and substation security, and operational efficiency.
