With the price of natural gas remaining at high levels, PPL Gas Utilities increased the charge on customer bills for natural gas supply starting March 1.
"Across the country, natural gas prices have increased steadily in recent years," said Robert M. Geneczko, president of PPL Gas Utilities, which must buy gas for its customers from suppliers who operate gas wells, mainly around the Gulf of Mexico.
"We are not allowed to make a profit on the gas we buy for our customers, but we are able to adjust rates, with the approval of utility regulators, to account for short-term changes in the prices we must pay to buy gas," he added.
PPL Gas Utilities' new rate on this pass-through charge for natural gas supply is $8.32 cents per dekatherm, an increase of 59 cents.
A residential customer who uses 8 dekatherms per month will see an increase in the total gas bill of 4.6 percent, to $107.74 from $103.01. The effect on individual customers will vary depending on how much gas they use.
"Our approach to purchasing gas is to limit the effect of suppliers' price changes on our customers," Geneczko said. "As a result, our rates for gas supply, even with this increase, are well below the state average."
Based on information available on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Web site, the average rate charged by the state's largest natural gas delivery companies for gas purchases is more than $9 per thousand cubic feet. PPL Gas Utilities' new rate of $8.32 per dekatherm is equivalent to $8.56 per thousand cubic feet.
To help residential customers manage their gas bills, PPL Gas Utilities offers a Budget Billing option, which enables customers to pay the same price each month based on their total yearly gas use, and has special services for customers with financial hardships. For information, customers may call 1-800-652-0550.
The increase also affects the company's business customers. The total gas bill for a commercial customer using 31 dekatherms a month will increase by 5.4 percent to $355.89. The total gas bill for an industrial customer using 201 dekatherms will increase by 5.9 percent to $2,145.
A dekatherm is a unit of heat energy in natural gas equal to 1 million British thermal units (BTUs). The energy in one dekatherm of natural gas can run a furnace for 10 hours, dry 72 loads of laundry or cook 23 12-pound turkeys.
PPL Gas Utilities is the local natural gas delivery company for 76,500 customers in parts of 34 Pennsylvania counties.
PPL Gas Utilities is a subsidiary of PPL Corporation. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) controls more than 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.