Westar Energy Inc., the largest electric utility in Kansas and under pressure by regulators to restructure, said Monday it may sell its controversial security services company Protection One Inc.

The move was welcomed by Westar critics who have charged that the debt-laden utility’s investment activities, particularly its 88 percent stake in Protection One, threaten its ability to serve power customers.

“We think that (the divestiture move) is in the broad picture a good thing,” said David Springe, chief counsel of the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board.

“We have argued for the last two years that the unregulated investment, primarily Protection One, is really the reason Westar is in the financial crisis it is in now. We’re glad they’re exploring the process of separating.”

Westar was not able to provide details about its plans for Protection One, said spokeswoman Karla Olsen. But James Haines Jr., the company’s new president and chief executive told the Journal-World in a November interview that ridding Westar of Protection One was clearly a possibility.

“I can say I don’t think it is fundamentally a problem for a utility company to have nonregulated operations, but I also believe the nonregulated operations have to support themselves,” Haines said. “They should not be allowed to be a drag on the regulated operations.

“If Protection One can make money for the shareholders and do that without jeopardizing the utility operations, then it could be a good thing. If not, we’ll have to figure out how to resolve that.”

Westar stock closed down 2.7 percent at $10.38 in trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Currently, Westar Energy is a parent company but holds the utility assets. A subsidiary holds the unregulated businesses, but Westar files a consolidated financial statement.

Westar, which has about $3.6 billion in debt, has been ordered by the Kansas Corporation Commission to begin reducing its debt by at least $100 million a year, and to separate its utility operations from Protection One and other nonutility operations by Aug. 1.

Westar has filed a request for reconsideration of the orders, saying the timetable might not be possible.

Westar, which provides retail electric service to about 636,000 customers in Kansas, has been wrestling with a host of problems on many fronts.

Late last year, Westar said SEC investigators were examining accounting practices dealing with the restatement of financial data relating to Protection One.

In addition to its stake in Protection One, Westar holds shares of diversified energy company ONEOK Inc. Last week, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission subpoenaed ONEOK for information about “certain trading by energy and power marketing firms,” according to a federal filing by ONEOK.

Westar said that Tulsa, Okla.-based ONEOK had agreed to repurchase some of the stock it gave to Westar in 1997 in exchange for the Topeka-based company’s natural gas assets.