State lawyer says $222 million worker death verdict shouldn't raise Evergy rates

Evergy electric customers are unlikely to see higher bills stemming from a $222 million jury verdict over steam-burn deaths at Kansas’ biggest power plant, according to the head of the state agency that represents home and small-business utility ratepayers.

A Texas jury this week found Westar Energy, which became part of Evergy in a 2018 merger, was 10% liable for the death of Jesse Henson, an employee from Manhattan and one of two men burned alive by superheated steam in an June 2018 accident at the Jeffrey Energy Center near St. Marys.

Team Industrial Services, a maintenance subcontractor to Westar, was found 90% liable.

So, could Evergy’s share of the court verdict wind up on your electric bill? Probably not, said David Nickel, chief consumer counsel for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board.

He said he hasn’t been able to find Kansas case law directly on point, but the utility may be protected from having to pay any part of the Texas court judgment by a Kansas law limiting worker’s compensation death benefits to $250,000.

Read more: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/article251868228.html