S&P boosts Westar

Standard & Poor's said it raised the corporate credit rating on Westar Energy Inc. and subsidiary Kansas Gas & Electric Co. to BBB from BBB-.

The outlook is stable.

According to S&P, the upgrade reflects its view of management's decreasing regulatory risk, the company's increasing regulatory diversity of its cash flows and its continued focus on its regulated core strategies.

Within the past 15 months, Westar has implemented multiple constructive rate cases that have collectively increased its base rates by more than $147 million, the agency noted.

Additionally, the company has been able to reduce its regulatory lag and diversify its cash flow by incorporating transmission rates on a forward looking basis, recovering fuel and purchase power costs through its energy cost adjustment mechanism, and recovering increased environmental capital expenditures through its environmental cost-recovery rider, S&P added.

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