Governor Laura Kelly is encouraging Kansans to apply for Low Income Energy Assistance Program funding to help cover the costs of high electricity bills cause by February’s extreme cold.
LIEAP is a federally funded program that assists low income households by paying a portion of their home energy bills by providing a one-time, per-year benefit.
The application period began January 4th, 2021, and ends on March 31st, 2021.
Further steps are being taken to address the issue of higher than usual utility costs for Kansas residents. The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) has instructed utilities under its jurisdiction–such as Evergy, Liberty, and Kansas Gas Service–to defer the extraordinary costs.
Utility companies regulated by the KCC are required to submit what costs they incurred because of the storm in addition to plans chronicling detailed steps being taken by them to mitigate the costs to consumers. KCC is also working to implement a plan to spread extra costs out over several months to ease the burden on consumers.
All KCC-regulated utilities are offering payment plans to aid customers in spreading out costs. They say that you should contact your utilities provider to explore what other payment options are available.
