{"id":94416,"date":"2025-09-04T08:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=94416"},"modified":"2025-09-04T08:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:22:14","slug":"every-federal-changes-wont-affect-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2025\/09\/04\/every-federal-changes-wont-affect-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Every: Federal Changes Won’t Affect Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOPEKA  \u2014 New federal guidelines to wind and solar tax credits took effect Monday, but large solar projects planned by Evergy won\u2019t be affected, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massive tax cut and spending law that Congress passed in July, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,  limited tax credits for green energy projects, such as the two solar farms Evergy received regulatory approval<\/a> to build in Kansas and Missouri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago the U.S. Treasury Department published its interpretation of the bill<\/a>, outlining deadlines for beginning construction and clarifying when certain tax credits would go away. That allowed companies to determine the viability of planned projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe solar power plants that have been approved by the Kansas and Missouri commissions will be generating electricity for customers in time to qualify for the existing tax credits,\u201d said Gina Penzig, Evergy spokeswoman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Astrab, consumer counsel at the Citizens\u2019 Utility Ratepayer Board, said tax credits are taken into account when determining expected costs on green energy projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to tell what the immediate impacts will be. It\u2019s going to be a process,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest importance of these tax credits was to help make renewable resources, such as wind or solar, more cost competitive with other types of resources, such as natural gas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astrab said the integrated resource planning, which utility companies complete on a regular basis, will address the effects federal changes will have on how energy is distributed in Kansas. In that process, the companies are considering resources, needs in the generation system and making a future-looking plan, he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom CURB\u2019s perspective, we\u2019re looking at both trying to balance affordability and reliability,\u201d he said. \u201cBut clearly from the public hearings we\u2019ve seen in the past and recently with different rate cases, a lot of people are concerned about affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the last few years, we\u2019ve been able to compare solar and wind projects to thermal projects, including the offset of those tax credits to make it more economical,\u201d Astrab added. \u201cThat analysis will change going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot depends on how Evergy will evaluate projects going forward, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking at Evergy\u2019s 2025 (integrated resource plan), the question becomes whether or not Evergy is going to be shifting away from procuring more solar, renewable types of resources in a system, and falling back on \u2014 and I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a sure thing \u2014 more readily accessible, economical natural gas resources and procuring more of those.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evergy received approval from the Kansas Corporation Commission<\/a> to build two new natural gas plants, as well as the Kansas solar field, to the tune of about $2 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penzig said Evergy develops a long-term outlook for expected electricity demand every three years and a plan to meet needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe create a plan that will provide reliable electricity for the least expected cost,\u201d she said. \u201cPlans are updated annually between the triennial filings as factors change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plans look at multiple factors that affect generation costs, Penzig said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the most significant impacts include expected demand for electricity, construction costs including any related transmission expansion, fuel, plant maintenance, major plant upgrades, environmental regulation and state or federal policy treatment including tax benefits,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector TOPEKA  \u2014 New federal guidelines to wind and solar tax credits took effect Monday, but large solar projects planned by Evergy won\u2019t be affected, a spokeswoman said. The massive tax cut and spending law that Congress passed in July, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,  limited tax credits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7901,6846],"class_list":["post-94416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-evergy","tag-solar-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}