IDAHO, USA — Intermountain Gas Company has just filed an interim purchased gas cost adjustment (PGA) application to raise its prices. According to a press release by Intermountain Gas, if it's approved, customers will see increases start Feb. 1, 2023. The company said that the monthly increases would be roughly 16.6%, or $8.58 for residential services and 17.9%, or $43.10 for commercial services.
"The rebounding economy, a slow ramp up of drilling activity and limited natural gas pipeline capacity are factors in increased commodity prices," said Scott Madison, executive vice president of business development and gas supply for Intermountain.
This comes after the company filed the yearly PGA in August to lower prices, KTVB previously reported. In that filing, Intermountain Gas had stated that monthly prices would have lowered $1.36, or 2.5% for residential services and $4.32, or 1.8% for commercial services. That decrease was approved in September.
According to Adam Rush, public information officer at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, there is not a limit on the number of interim PGA's that a company can file. This happens when gas prices deviate from what has been included in the rates. Rush furthered that, in this specific case for Intermountain Gas, the interim PGA would be necessary to deal with future increase rates.
Basically, if a company thinks they can't make enough money to recoup its cost, then it files a rate case with the commission to help mitigate that.
However, Rush stated that, Intermountain Gas had a case filed in 2016 where the company asked for a large increase and the Utilities Commission allowed a smaller increase.
"In that case, Intermountain asked for an increase of $10.2 million, or 4.06%," wrote Rush in an email. "In that case, the commission authorized an increase of $4.1 million, or 1.58%. Notice how the request for $10.2 million (4.06%) compares to the hundreds of millions the company has to pay for gas to supply customers during this winter. That’s the magnitude of the current natural gas market right now."
The City of Boise also routinely gets involved in rate cases. Rush said it's common for the city to get involved and file recommendations with the commission. According to the city of Boise's Public Works Team, the city is reviewing the proposals filed by the gas company and could take part in the commission's process to support the interests of everyone who is an Intermountain Gas customer, including the city.
"Additionally, we will continue to track other utility regulatory actions related to our climate and clean energy goals," stated an email.
Intermountain Gas's most recent press release said that the company has under-collected regarding costs this year and that the increase would be to, "mitigate the under-collection balance." Laura Lueder, the manager of communications and public relations at Intermountain Gas, stated that the request was filed to adjust the cost to customers because natural gas commodity costs have sharply increased.
"If Intermountain Gas does not start to recover some of these higher gas costs now, customers are likely to see a sharper increase later in the year when Intermountain Gas typically files its PGA request," Lueder wrote in an email. "There is no financial benefit to Intermountain Gas associated with the PGA. Gas costs are simply passed through directly to customers."
Intermountain Gas does offer a "Level Pay" program where customers can pay the same amount all year to offset the months that would incur larger bills. People can see if they are eligible for the program at the Intermountain Gas website. The press release also pointed to federal and state energy assistance programs that people could go to for assistance paying their energy bills.
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