Avista requests lower natural gas prices for Oregon customers
Given the continued decline in wholesale natural gas prices, Avista is proposing to decrease the natural gas rates customers pay to better reflect current market prices for natural gas.
“We know our customers see higher bills as the weather gets colder, and we want to pass these price decreases on to them as quickly as we can,” said
If approved by the PUC, residential natural gas customers in
The percentage change varies by rate schedule and is dependent upon how much energy customers on the respective rate schedules use.
Purchased Gas Cost Adjustments (PGAs) are filed each year, usually in the fall, to balance the actual cost of wholesale natural gas purchased by Avista to serve customers with the amount included in rates. This includes the natural gas commodity cost as well as the cost to transport natural gas on interstate pipelines to Avista’s local distribution system. Avista filed its annual
The primary drivers for the earlier rate reduction included continued low natural gas commodity costs due to the continued high production levels of natural gas and an abundance of natural gas in storage, which resulted in a decrease in wholesale natural gas prices. These factors have continued to put downward pressure on natural gas prices.
If approved, Avista’s request is designed to decrease natural gas revenues by
About 40 percent of an Avista natural gas customer's bill is the combined cost of purchasing natural gas on the wholesale market and transporting it to Avista's system. These costs fluctuate up and down based on market prices. The costs are not marked up by Avista. The remaining 60 percent covers the cost of delivering the natural gas -- the equipment and people needed to provide safe and reliable service.
These filings have no impact on Avista’s earnings, and are not related to the proposed acquisition of Avista by
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