Liberty customers to see drop in monthly fuel adjustment charge

May 21—Liberty customers will begin saving money on the utility bills beginning next month.

The Missouri Public Service Commission said Friday it approved a decrease in the Joplin-based utility's fuel adjustment clause charge that appears on the bills of its electric customers.

For a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month, the FAC will decrease by approximately $8.54 a month. The new rate takes effect June 1.

The FAC allows the utility to pass increases or decreases in its net fuel and purchased power costs to customers outside of a general rate case.

Liberty officials said in a statement when making the filing in April that the utility buys natural gas that is used to fuel some of its power generation plants.

"As a regulated utility, our fuel costs are passed through to customers with no mark up, and Liberty does not profit on this part of a customer's utility bill," Liberty said. "Fortunately, we've seen fuel prices fall recently. This, along with our affordable wind energy generation, which requires no fuel to operate, has resulted in lower fuel costs that we are passing on to customers."

Liberty also said the fuel adjustment charge is "the difference between the fuel and purchased power costs established in the current rate structure and the actual fuel and purchased power costs incurred by Liberty."

For Missouri electric customers, this charge is adjusted twice a year, in June and December, Liberty said.

According to the Missouri Public Service Commission, the fuel adjustment charges are intended to help companies deal with volatility in fuel pricing.

Liberty serves approximately 159,400 electric customers in Southwest Missouri, as well as customers in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas, but those customers are regulated by rules in their states.