Utility merger takes place

A map displays the new KCP&L coverage area. Nevada is within the orange, or Southeast area. --submitted illustration

It's official -- Aquila has been acquired by Great Plains Energy, which also has Kansas City Power and Light under its leadership. The official changeover will be Monday, July 14, and customers can expect one more bill with Aquila's name on the envelope once the changeover takes place.

Matt Tidwell, KCP&L director of public affairs, was in Nevada Wednesday, along with three others; Katie McDonald, senior communications specialist; Jan Zimmers, Aquila director of community communications and Dave Millam, Aquila Nevada representative, on a tour of the area affected by the merger to explain what would be happening.

"We just want to get the word out so that people will know what is happening," Tidwell said. "We want to make the changes transparent for our customers."

Tidwell said the changes should result in lower bills for customers.

"Because of the economy of scale we can combine savings from the acquisition and our customers will see the savings," Tidwell said. "By 2017 the savings should be more than $500 million dollars."

The new company will be known as KCP&L and include all customers from the two companies. Aquila currently has approximately 300,000 customers and KCP&L approximately 500,000 customers.

The area encompassed by the merged company will go from Grant City in the north to Lamar in the south and from Lyndon, Kan. in the west to Keytesville in the east. The combined generating capacity of the new company is approximately 5,800 megawatts.

The Missouri Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in Missouri, approved the merger but made it contingent on several conditions. One of the conditions the commission imposed is that any negative financial effect from the merger will be borne by the shareholders of the company, not the customers.

Tidwell stressed that the company was trying to make the changeover easy for customers and there would be a gradual transition to the new system.

Customers will receive a bill for a short period caused by the transition coming in the middle of a billing cycle. Because of that customers will get a final bill from Aquila that covers just a part of a month. Tidwell said customers should treat the bill as they would any bill and pay it in the same manner as they always have.

"Customers should pay the bill where they always have," Tidwell said. "Over the next few weeks they will begin to notice a transition from Aquila to the KCP&L brand."

One of the new features customers can take advantage of is the Web site, www.kcpl.com, is PowerWatch under quick links on the right side of the home page.

"Customers can log on at any time to see where power outages are and how long it may take to repair them," Tidwell said. "There is a tab called "restoration information" that tell how many people have lost power, when the power went out and how many people have had power restored."

Current Aquila customers will soon be able to take advantage of programs KCP&L has in place once the regulatory process is complete.

"Everything we do is regulated and we have to get approvals before offering new services," McDonald said.

"We'll be putting out a press release when we have the programs ready to go," Tidwell said.

Aquila customers will need to keep two new telephone numbers handy; for emergencies or to report outages, 1-888-LIGHT-KC (544-4852); and service related or billing questions 1-888-471-KCPL (5275).

Customers can also access complete account and service related, outage reporting and bill payment information online at www.kcpl.com.