Westar customers who previously purchased electricity from Kansas Power & Light, like those in Lawrence, had better be ready for the other shoe to drop.

The Kansas Corporation Commission is moving toward approval of a compromise rate increase negotiated by Westar and the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board. The negotiated increase would raise electrical rates by about 11 percent, instead of the 15 percent originally proposed by Westar.

That’s the relatively good news. However, the KCC also said last week that it plans to consider a related issue that could bump electrical rates up even higher for customers formerly served by KPL.

The “equalization” issue dates back to 1991 when KPL merged with Kansas Gas and Electric, which was charging significantly higher electrical rates to offset its costs for building the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant. As part of the merger, KPL customers were protected from those higher rates and have continued to pay lower rates than former KG&E customers.

Now, the KCC says it’s time to consider equalizing those rates.

A KCC spokesman made the argument that equalization would spread among all Westar customers the cost of environmental remediation efforts that will be required at the Jeffrey, Lawrence, Tecumseh and LaCygne coal-fired plants. Although former KPL customers would be helping pay off the debt for Wolf Creek, they also would benefit from the lower production costs at that plant, she said.

Fairness should be the KCC’s top consideration in this matter. KG&E customers made the decision to take on the debt for Wolf Creek and it’s only fair that they should be responsible for that debt. Westar should not be allowed to backtrack on that promise. If the cost of updating the former KPL coal plants is approximately equal to paying off Wolf Creek, charging an equal rate to all Westar customers may be fair, but those costs need to be carefully justified by Westar and examined by the KCC, before any rate increases are approved or “equalized.”