Jonathan Kim Kansas City-based Evergy this month signaled plans to delay the retirement of its coal plants, increase planned methane gas generation, and reduce and delay new renewable energy generation, raising questions about its ability to meet its pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2045, and the cost to consumers of the new gas plants.
The shifts are included in Evergy’s most recent update to its integrated resource plan (IRP) for its Kansas subsidiaries, filed with state regulators on May 1. The utility filed a similar update for its Missouri subsidiaries on March 13. In both updates, Evergy relies more heavily on fossil fuel plants to meet future electricity demand than earlier iterations of the plan. The Sierra Club has criticized Evergy’s expanded fossil-fuel reliance, pointing to its incongruence with stated climate commitments and likely increased costs for customers.
Integrated resource plans as a roadmap for the future
An IRP is a utility’s roadmap for meeting projected demand in coming years. Evergy files IRPs every three years with both the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) and Missouri Public Service Commission (MPSC), and provides annual updates, like the one filed this month.
In its IRPs, Evergy projects future demand and projects which resources it thinks are best to meet that demand. IRPs aren’t approved by the KCC and MPSC; the commissioners treat them as primarily informational so they can know what to expect from Evergy in coming years.
In Missouri, at least, that is set to change; Missouri’s IRP process was recently revised by utility-supported omnibus legislation, Senate Bill 4. Starting in 2027, IRPs will be every four years, and if the MPSC approves an IRP’s preferred plan for meeting demand, new generation facilities in those plans will receive expedited approval and beneficial financial treatment through a “construction work in progress” provision that enables utilities to charge customers for projects before they are complete.
Evergy delays coal retirements
Each of Evergy’s three subsidiaries that filed IRP updates this year delayed the retirement of coal plants. Combined, they aim to keep 914 MW of high-polluting coal online for years longer.
Evergy’s Kansas Central IRP — serving Manhattan, Topeka, and Wichita — delays the retirement of the 480 MW Lawrence Energy Center coal plant from 2028 to 2032. Evergy Metro — serving Kansas City and surrounding areas — delays a 375 MW retirement from 2032 to 2033. Missouri West — serving Chillicothe, Clinton, and St. Joseph — delays 59 MW of retirement from 2031 from 2032. The Evergy Metro and Missouri West retirements both include the delayed retirement of the Jeffrey Energy Center coal plant, with that plant’s generation divided proportionally between each subsidiary.
Evergy had once planned to retire Lawrence Energy Center in 2023, but has continued to push that date back, now into the 2030s. Not long after announcing its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, Evergy launched an advertising campaign touting the goal with the tag #MovingEnergyForward. In some of the advertisements, CEO David Campbell points to the 2023 planned retirement of Lawrence Energy Center as a cornerstone of the utility’s sustainability vision.
Evergy at one point planned to retire the Jeffrey Energy Center in 2030. The facility emitted 6.8 million tons of CO2 equivalent — a measure of climate pollution — in 2023, ranking 37th in the nation among power plants for emissions according to EPA eGRID data. Lawrence Energy Center emitted more than 2 million tons.
In addition to climate pollution, coal plants diminish air quality in nearby communities, emitting local air pollutants like particulate matter, SO2 and NOx. Additionally, coal plants are linked to increased incidence of cancer and increased mortality risk. In 2010, Westar Energy — which later merged with Kansas City Power & Light to become Evergy — agreed to spend $500 million to settle a Clean Air Act violation related to Jeffrey Energy Center. Westar had failed to install required pollution control equipment and comply with pollution-emission limits.
Increased methane gas and reduced renewables
In its 2021 and 2022 IRPs, Evergy planned to add only renewable energy generation through 2032, the farthest its IRP model planned ahead. Beginning in 2023, Evergy added 1.7 GW of new methane gas facilities to its plan. Evergy increased gas additions to 2.6 GW in 2024 before soaring to more than 4.4 GW in its 2025 update, which showed new gas facilities could be built as late as 2033. Evergy also plans to convert Jeffrey Energy Center and Lawrence Energy Center to gas plants. The 4.4 GW of proposed gas is made up of 880 MW of combustion turbine plants and 3.6 GW of combined-cycle plants. Gas plants have lifespans of approximately 30 years, so these plants could be expected to operate into the 2060s, in conflict with Evergy’s stated net-zero goal.
Evergy is currently facing pushback from customers and local businesses for its plans to build two new fossil gas plants in Kansas to come online in 2029 and 2030. Customers and outside groups question the necessity of the plants and the increased costs that ratepayers will face.
As Evergy expanded its planned gas portfolio, it reduced the role of renewables. In its 2022 IRP, when renewables were the only planned additions to the grid, Evergy planned for more than 3.5 GW of additions. That number fell to 3.2 GW in 2024 and 3 GW in 2025. However, Evergy did add 150 MW of battery storage to its plans this year.
Evergy eliminates interim climate target
Evergy’s latest IRP update continues the utility’s climate backsliding, with 2025 marking the utility’s third consecutive year of increasing its planned use of fossil-fuel infrastructure. This year’s projected delays in coal plant retirements come after Evergy outlined plans for new methane gas projects in 2023 and 2024, and after it scaled back renewable energy plans in 2023.
The changes come less than a half-decade after the utility announced its net-zero by 2045 goal in 2021. At the time, Evergy also set an interim goal to reduce emissions 70% by 2030. But as of this spring, Evergy has removed the 2030 goal from securities filings and from its sustainability website.
Evergy has also significantly lowered the threshold for executives to receive their “environmental” incentive compensation. The compensation is based on the amount of renewable energy deployed, and in a 2025 shareholder filing Evergy slashed the amount required for executives to satisfy each of the “threshold,” “target,” “stretch,” and “superior” categories tied to compensation.
Still, Evergy continues to recognize climate change as a threat to its operations. In its securities filings, the utility discloses risks and uncertainties that may affect their projections, including “the impact of climate change, including increased frequency and severity of significant weather events” as well as “risks relating to potential wildfires.”
Photo credit: Evergy Media Resources
