Customers of PPL’s natural gas delivery affiliate will pay slightly less for the natural gas they use this fall.

Effective Sept. 1, PPL Gas Utilities, which serves customers through its PFG Gas and North Penn Gas subsidiaries, reduced the Gas Supply Charge portion of customers’ bills to $6.18 from $6.35 per dekatherm.

"The reduction reflects lower prices for natural gas that are typical in the summer when the demand for gas is lower," said Robert M. Geneczko, president of PPL Gas Utilities.

"As a local natural gas delivery company, part of our responsibility is to buy gas for our customers at the lowest possible cost," Geneczko said. "We fully expect the prices that natural gas producers charge to go up this winter, however, as customer use increases and gas supplies get tighter."

The Sept. 1 supply charge reduction means the average residential customer using 8 dekatherms per month will see a reduction of 1.5 percent on his or her total gas bill, to $90.64. The actual reduction will vary, depending on how much gas the customer uses. A dekatherm is a measure of the heat energy in natural gas.

The Gas Supply Charge is a pass-through on customers’ bills, reflecting the price PPL pays to purchase natural gas from producers, Geneczko explained. PPL is not permitted by state regulation to make a profit on the gas it buys.

The total gas bill for a commercial customer using 30 dekatherms a month will decrease by 1.8 percent to $281.22. The total gas bill for an industrial customer using 223 dekatherms a month will decrease by 2 percent to $1,887.09.

PPL Gas Utilities, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), serves 75,000 natural gas customers in parts of 34 Pennsylvania counties. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation controls about 11,500 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.