KCP&L seeks power rate hikes in Kansas, Missouri

NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Great Plains Energy Inc's (GXP.N) KCP&L unit filed requests with utility regulators in Missouri and Kansas to boost base power rates by about $257 million to cover environmental upgrades and energy efficiency programs, the company said in a release last week.

The requests will hike typical residential customers' rates by about 16.2 percent or $12.27 a month and would take effect in late summer of 2009, subject to regulatory approval.

KCP&L includes the former Aquila customers.

The environmental upgrades include work on KCP&L's 651-megawatt Iatan and 508 MW Sibley coal-fired power plants in Missouri.

The company did not include changes in fuel costs in this rate increase request.

One MW powers 800 homes in Kansas and Missouri.

Great Plains, of Kansas City, Missouri, owns and operates more than 4,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to more than 800,000 customers in western Missouri and Kansas. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino)