Liberty receives approval from Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to adjust its Kansas electric rates

Updated rates, effective August 1, 2026, will recover costs for infrastructure and investments completed over the last five years to support reliability and improve service, lower generation fuel costs, and meet rising energy demand. 

Since 2020, Liberty has invested more than $85 million to strengthen the electric system and energy grid serving Kansas homes, businesses, and communities. This amount reflects the Kansas portion of an overall investment in Liberty’s system serving Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. This investment upgraded aging infrastructure and modernized technology to support reliability and increased capacity to strengthen grid resilience during extreme weather. It also made energy generation more cost-effective during periods of high demand and enabled more convenient and accessible service for customers. 

To seek cost recovery for this investment, on December 31, 2025, The Empire District Electric Company (doing business as Liberty) filed a request with the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to adjust electric base rates. On July 21, 2026, KCC approved new rates, the first increase to base rates – which include the per-kilowatt-hour and customer charges – since 2012, 14 years ago. 

What this means for Kansas customers

Liberty recognizes the impact of rising energy bills on customers. To help address this, Liberty will introduce new rates gradually over two years as part of this rate change. Liberty has also made investments in renewable energy that are expected to reduce generation fuel costs for Kansas customers over time, helping to lessen the impact on bills.  

Two-year phase in of new rates beginning August 1, 2026: 

The average residential electric customer using about 1,000 kilowatt hours per month will see a total monthly bill adjustment of about: 

• $14.73 in year one beginning August 1, 2026 (an approximately 11% change over current rates); 

• and $12.98 in year two beginning August 1, 2027 (an approximately 9% change over year one). 

The current total bill, including riders, for residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per month is about $135.38. The total bill after two years would be $163.08. This is about a 20.5% increase in the total bill, which includes base rates, reduced fuel costs (listed as ECA on the bill), and other charges.  

Here's what we completed for Kansas customers that are now part of new rates: 

• Increased capacity to meet rising energy demand from improvements to our generation plants 
• Support for reliability with the addition of upgraded substations, including a new substation serving Baxter Springs 
• Long-term lowering of generation fuel costs from the addition of approximately 600 megawatts of renewable wind energy, including a wind farm in Neosho County, Kansas 
• Hardening our system against extreme weather through reinforcement or replacement of approximately 836 poles and upgrades to more than 35 miles of distribution line in Kansas 
• Lowering the number of animal-related outages (a top cause of outages) with the addition of 572 wildlife guards to structures and substations 
• Reducing the number of customers impacted by outages and speeding up outage restoration with protective devices that sectionalize existing circuits to isolate damage 
• Helping to support a new customer service platform with near real-time energy usage information with a transition to automated meter technology 
• Providing customers with more access to energy information and more options for convenient service through a new My Account platform and mobile app with email and text notifications for billing and outages 

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