Columbia Gas of Virginia receives approval of base rate case

Columbia Gas of Virginia has received final approval of its base rate case from the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

Key notable items include:

• Approves a $25.2 million revenue increase supported by a settlement agreement reached with interested parties to the rate case filing.
• Supports recovery of more than $112 million in investments already made to improve the safety and reliability of Virginia’s natural gas infrastructure, as well as the efficiency of customer meter reading using new automated technology.
• Approves a modification in the company’s tariff to make it more economical for interested residential customers to convert to natural gas service.
• Approves the transition of customer billing from volumetric (Cubic Feet) to Dekatherm (DTH) basis. The change will be effective with customer bills not later than July 2016 and maintains fair and equitable bills for all customers by billing based on the value of the product and aligns with how Columbia Gas purchases natural gas.

• Within 90 days the Company will refund, with interest, the difference from the interim rates implemented in October 2014 and the final rates in accordance with SCC rules. The average residential customer refund is expected to be between $20 and $25.
• The new monthly fixed customer charge will be $15.00, a decrease from the current interim level of $18.00 for residential customers.

“This order recognizes the investments Columbia Gas has made to aggressively replace aging infrastructure and expand facilities improving the integrity of our underground pipeline network and enabling us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing leaks on our system,” said Columbia Gas of Virginia President, Brent Archer. “The benefits of our investments were proven during the past winter season when the company was able to deliver a record amount of natural gas safely to our customers and the communities we serve across Virginia.”

Prior to the final order received last Friday, Columbia Gas was last authorized to increase its base rates effective January 1, 2011.  Base rates only include those costs associated with the delivery, distribution and customer services operations for Columbia Gas.  Base rates currently represent approximately 44 percent of a customer’s total bill.  The remaining 56 percent are the natural gas commodity costs and are not included in the base rate adjustment requested in this case. These costs are instead directly passed through to the customer on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Natural gas commodity costs remain relatively low due to an abundant domestic supply.