MCE: Developers can work around the PSC’s large-load descriptions

By Sheila Harris [email protected]

The Empire District Electric Company, doing business as Liberty Utilities and headquartered in Joplin, is requesting approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) for a large load customer rate plan and associated tariffs, the PSC announced in a Sept. 17 press release.

Locally, Liberty Utilities provides electricity to residents in northern Barry County, including Purdy and Monett.

According to the PSC, Senate Bill 4 (passed by the Missouri General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Kehoe in 2025) requires the PSC to adopt special rate structures (tariffs) for large load customers. Those customers include data center developers, the PSC said. The required tariff proposals are designed to ensure that large load customers pay their share of the costs associated with serving them, while preventing smaller customers from facing “unjust or unreasonable costs arising from service to large load customers,” the PSC states.

According to SB 4, a large load customer is a business “reasonably projected to have above an annual peak demand of one hundred megawatts or more,” in a market where electricity is served to over 250,000 customers.

In an area where 250,000 or fewer customers are served, a large load customer is defined as one projected to have an annual peak demand of “50 megawatts or more.”

When considering large load tariffs, the PSC uses previously adopted provisions which they say are designed to protect residential and small-business customers from costs related to data centers. They include, for large load customers, minimum service contracts of 12 years, with an additional 5-year option; financial security and collateral requirements; exit and early termination fees; a minimum monthly bill at a projected, agreed upon rate; cost stabilization recovery to ensure that the electric utility can recover all costs associated with serving large load customers and that customers are paying their full cost of service; and optional renewable and carbon-free programs at the large-load customer’s expense.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE), a non-profit advocate for Missouri’s environment since 1969, weighed in on Senate Bill 4 after its passage last year (https://tinyurl.com/bddmpnba).

“Despite the large load section of the law, SB4 does not guarantee that data center costs will not be pushed onto residential consumers,” the MCE states.

Too many loopholes exist in the bill, they say.

According to the MCE, data center electricity usage can range from a few megawatts to hundreds. Data center developers can work around the PSC’s large-load descriptions by building multiple faller facilities and thus not be subject to the large-load tariff requirements, the MCE said.

Another section of Senate Bill 4 allows utilities to charge in advance for construction works in progress (CWIPs).

“The accounting mechanisms…make it easier for utilities to finance projects that will attract data centers and incentivizes them to raise residential rates in order to pay for new generation infrastructure,” the MCE said.

Although the CWIP rule does not apply to electricity projects, Liberty received approval from the PSC in July for a rate increase which began the first week in August. According to the PSC, increase was approved because Liberty met “customer service and billing metrics with over 99% compliance.” 

However, approval for the increase came one month after Liberty announced a $750 million project to upgrade the capacity of 90 miles of their transmission lines from 161 kV to 345 kV, from Branson to Joplin, as part of a larger project that includes parts of southeast Kansas, northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri.

Liberty’s rate increase is scheduled to be implemented in intervals over a three-year period. Their transmission-line upgrades are projected to be completed in 2030.

According to its website, Liberty Utilities serves “electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater treatment utility systems and electricity generation, transmission and distribution utility services to over 1.2 million customer connections, mostly in the United States.”

The Missouri Public Service Commission regulates investor-owned public utilities in Missouri, including electric providers Ameren Missouri, Evergy and the Empire District Electric Company (doing business as Liberty Utilities). Large load tariff plans for Ameren and Evergy have already been approved by the commission.

Liberty is requesting that the PSC issues an order approving its application by January 31, 2027.

The PSC has set a deadline of October 12, 2026, to intervene and participate in Liberty’s large load customer rate plan and associated tariffs.

Applications to intervene and participate in this case must be filed with the Secretary of the Missouri Public Service Commission, P.O. Box 360, Jefferson City, Missouri 65102, or by using the Commission’s Electronic Filing and Information System (EFIS) at www.psc.mo.gov.

Individual citizens wishing to comment should contact either the Office of the Public Counsel (Governor Office Building, 200 Madison Street, Suite 650, P.O. Box 2230, Jefferson City, Missouri 65102-2230, telephone 1-866-922-2959, email [email protected]) or the Public Service Commission Staff (P.O. Box 360, Jefferson City, Missouri 65102, telephone 1-800-392-4211, email [email protected] ). The Office of the Public Counsel is a separate state agency that represents the general public in matters before the Commission.

Written comments may also be submitted by using the Commission’s online comment form at https://tinyurl.com/4pv39f6e. When submitting comments, please refer to Case No. ET-2026-0184.

To read the press release, visit https://tinyurl.com/2dw24wxh.

For more information about large load utility tariffs in Missouri, visit https://tinyurl.com/227ys5am.