FINNEGAN, CONRAD & PETERSON L.C.

St. Joseph Light & Power and
UtiliCorp United Inc. Merger Proceedings

Federal - EC00-27-000

The FERC filing was made on November 23, 1999.  It has been assigned Docket No. EC00-27.  The filing was joined with that of Empire District Electric Company.  Numerous protests were registered, including several by transmission customers.

FERC recently approved the merger, but on a conditional basis.  The condition requires that the Joint Applicants submit a revised market power study based on the potential combined operations of their transmission systems.

Missouri - EM-2000-292

The filing in Missouri was made in late October.  This proceeding was the first to be filed by the two utilities and is still in the process of developing a procedural schedule at the Commission.  Hearings were hotly contested before the Missouri Commission.

The case was complicated by a June, 2000 explosion and fire at SJLP's Lake Road generating station.  SJLP sought, but was denied special accounting authority treatment for the costs it asserted it incurred to acquire purchased power.  UtiliCorp held up the merger process for a few weeks while the "materiality" of the incident was evaulated.

In late December, the Missouri Commission approved the merger of the two companies, but refused to approve the "regulatory plan" that had been proposed by UtiliCorp. That rejected regulatory plan included a five year rate "freeze" combined with a subsequent five year "sharing" of acquisition premium recovery between shareholders and ratepayers.  These issues were rate case issues, the Commission ruled, and should be dealt with at the time the division filed a rate case. 

We are advised that the merger "closed" on December 31, 2000.

Finnegan, Conrad & Peterson represented clients in all these differing proceedings.  Our clients opposed the regulatory plan and the extraordinary relief sought through the accounting authority order.

Presently, Ag Processing, an FCP client, has obtained a writ of review from the Cole County Circuit Court and is proceeding in that matter to obtain review of the Commission decision.

Last Updated 05/17/06