Council begins review of Independence Power & Light governance; AMI evaluation under way with likely opt-out

Members of the Independence City Council said on May 19 that the council has started a review of the governance model for Independence Power & Light (IPL) and that staff is evaluating proposals for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

Council Member Fears said the council recently resumed consideration of alternative governance models following last year’s consultant recommendation from DKMT. “We began that process as a council recently with a discussion session to begin to consider what elements might be important in a different governance model,” Fears said, and noted the council plans to continue discussions in June and gather comparative information from other municipal utilities.

Fears also said IPL staff have completed a request-for-proposal process to obtain consultant assistance on AMI and that “we do believe that there will be some form of opt out from AMI,” though it is “way too early in the process to determine what that is or what it would look like.”

Council Member McCandless highlighted operational reasons for AMI, including faster outage mapping and cost savings. “Advanced metering ... allows us to immediately map where the outage is so that we can be really efficient with sending our utility staff,” McCandless said, and added that AMI can improve restoration times and offer customers time-of-use options.

Councilmembers framed the matters as early-stage staff evaluations; no formal council action or vote on IPL governance or AMI was recorded at the May 19 meeting. Council members said they have heard community concerns about AMI and the potential for an opt-out option and expect further public discussion and staff briefings before decisions are made.