Puget Sound Energy seeks natural gas rate increase
Photo courtesy of instituteforenergyresearch.org
BELLEVUE -- Puget Sound Energy has requested a rate hike for natural gas customers that includes residential and commercial users.
While this winter's forecast for our area calls for slightly colder conditions, the rate hike request is based not on the weather, but on wholesale natural gas supplies.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) filed a request with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission on Tuesday, seeking a 1.5 percent increase for residential users and 1.6 percent increase for commercial customers, the utility's website reported.
PSE said that the rate hike will increase a typical household's monthly natural gas bill by $1.07 to $78.55, That is approximately what PSE residential customers were paying in 2010.
The utility said the increase reflects "a reduction of a credit included in current rates for the cost of natural gas supplies that PSE purchased for customers. While domestic supplies of natural gas are abundant, the wholesale price of natural gas has increased in the past year."