Missouri Public Service Commission

JEFFERSON CITY---The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved an agreement reached by parties in a case filed by The Empire District Electric Company d/b/a Liberty (Liberty) seeking to implement a Transportation Electrification Pilot Program.

Under the agreement, Liberty’s Transportation Electrification Pilot Program will be a five year program consisting of a Residential Smart Charge Pilot Program; a Ready Charge Pilot Program; a Commercial Electrification Pilot Program, an Electric School Bus Pilot Program; and a Non-Road Electrification Pilot Program.

The Residential Smart Charge Pilot Program is a subscription electric vehicle charging service for qualifying residential customers. The pilot program equips a customer’s residence with a dedicated smart electric vehicle charging station, and facilitates charging of the electric vehicles. The program is limited to 500 participants.

The Ready Charge Pilot Program deploys Liberty owned and operated electric vehicle fast charging infrastructure at publicly accessible commercial customer sites (hosted by businesses, public, or not-for-profit organizations) for shared public use to charge electric vehicles. The Commercial Electrification Pilot Program is similar to the Ready Charge Pilot Program, but deploys Liberty owned and operated electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the use of employees of the participant, rather than the general public.

The Electric School Bus Pilot Program provides charging infrastructure and Time-of-Use electricity consumption price schedules to support the operation of electric school buses at public school districts. The pilot program deploys Liberty owned and operated electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

The Non-Road Electrification Pilot Program provides rebates to encourage adoption of qualifying electric technologies that would otherwise be powered by gasoline or diesel. Qualifying electric technologies include electric forklifts of qualifying tonnage, electric-standby truck refrigeration units, and truck stop electrification equipment to power driver cabin appliances.

“After reviewing the Agreement, the Commission finds that it is a reasonable resolution of the issues contained therein and should be approved,” said the Commission.

Liberty serves approximately 157,400 electric customers in the Missouri counties of Barry, Barton, Cedar, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Greene, Hickory, Jasper, Lawrence, McDonald, Newton, Polk, St. Clair, Stone and Taney.

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Case No. ET-2020-0390