For the fourth consecutive quarter, PPL Gas Utilities is reducing the gas supply charge for its 75,000 customers.

Effective March 1, the gas supply charge will decrease by 58 cents to $4.55 per dekatherm. A dekatherm is a measure of the heat energy in natural gas. Bills show customers how many dekatherms they use each month.

PPL Gas Utilities filed the new gas supply charge Thursday (2/28) with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. The charge reflects the price the company pays to purchase natural gas for its customers.

"We continue to pass along the lower prices that suppliers are charging for natural gas," said Robert M. Geneczko, president of PPL Gas Utilities. "Since last June, the gas supply charge our customers pay has dropped by about 40 percent."

Price spikes last winter pushed the gas supply charge to $7.60 per dekatherm in March 2001. PPL Gas Utilities may adjust the charge every three months based on suppliers' prices. It reduced the charge in June, September and December 2001.

With the new gas supply charge, the total gas bill for an average residential customer, who uses 9 dekatherms of gas a month, will decrease by $4.59 to $88.60. Customers' actual savings will vary depending on how much gas they use.

The average residential customer's total gas bill has decreased by 17.5 percent over the past 12 months.

Commercial customers of PPL Gas Utilities using 33 dekatherms a month will see their total gas bill decrease by about $19. Industrial customers using 184 dekatherms a month will see a reduction of more than $105 on their total gas bill.

PPL Gas Utilities serves customers in parts of 34 counties across Pennsylvania.