The recession has local families pinching pennies, but at least pricey natural gas — for those who have it — won’t be as expensive this winter as last year.
Area consumers can expect to save a few dollars as natural gas rates paid by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) customers are going down for the second time this year. At the same time, electric rates are expected to go up slightly.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved PSE’s request to lower natural gas rates by about 16 percent at a quarterly rate-review late last month. The drop in rates is due to the continued decline in the wholesale cost of fuel.
For an average residential customer who uses 68 therms a month, the decrease is about $14.88, for a $78.30 monthly bill total beginning Oct. 1.
“Natural gas customers will soon begin to crank up the heat in response to cooler temperatures, I am pleased that they can expect noticeably lower heating bills this winter,” said UTC Commissioner Patrick Oshie.
Dorothy Bracken, a spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, confirmed that an estimated 8,200 of 11,828 households in Issaquah and 13,600 of 14,088 households in Sammamish use natural gas to heat their homes.
Historically, energy rates — and specifically natural gas — have risen well over the rate of inflation due to increasing energy prices. Average gas rates have approximately doubled since 2000.
In hydropower-rich Washington state, electricity remains the cheaper power source.
Prices for both gas and electric rarely decline and utilities usually ask the UTC for rate increases, not decreases.
The commission’s decision on PSE’s rate requests are separate from the general rate case filed by the company in May. In that ongoing proceeding, the utility is seeking a 2.5 percent increase in natural gas rates and a 7.4 percent increase in electric rates. The UTC will issue a decision on that request by next March.
Natural gas companies are required to adjust rates periodically to reflect the changes in wholesale prices. PSE is not allowed to earn a profit on gas-commodity rate changes.
PSE also requested the UTC approve two rate adjustments for electricity service that will result in customers seeing a slight increase in their electric bills.
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) will pay PSE a reduced amount of federal power benefits.
Federal power benefits are passed to residential and small farm customers as a credit on their electric bill – that credit amount on an average household’s monthly bill will fall by $1.86, from $9.14 to $7.27.
In addition, the commission also granted PSE a one-cent-per-month increase on natural gas and electric bills to help cover the costs of the company’s low-income assistance program.
This is the second price reduction of natural gas rates this year. In June, the UTC approved a decrease of about 1.7 percent, or $1.62 monthly for residential customers.
Bellevue-based Puget Sound Energy serves more than 1 million electric customers and nearly 750,000 natural gas customers in 11 Washington counties.
