UGI residential customer bills going down this month
Rates to increase in 2021 in separate filings
Residential customers of UGI Utilities are seeing a small break in their bills this month, but the cut will be short-lived.
Last week, the natural gas utility said it was decreasing the rate for gas it purchases by 1.1%. The reduction, which began Dec. 1, means the bill for a typical residential heating customer will drop about 90 cents a month.
The reason, UGI said, is because the company is paying less on the wholesale market to procure the natural gas it resells to consumers. By law, the company must resell the natural gas at cost.
But beginning Jan. 1, UGI will implement a three-step, 3.8% rate hike that will ultimately boost the average residential heating customer’s bill by $3.13 a month. The increase is to fund improvements to the utility’s distribution system, as The Morning Call reported in October.
The other increases, which were reached in a settlement approved by the state Public Utility Commission, are scheduled for July 1 and Oct. 1.
UGI had sought to increase the same residential customer’s bill by 10.6% per month but agreed to reduce the amount and spread out the increase because of the havoc that the coronavirus pandemic is creating for many households.
In its news release, UGI reminded customers who are having difficulty paying their heating bills to contact the utility at 800-276-2722 for possible assistance.
The rate increase is UGI’s second in two years. The company and the PUC reached a settlement in September 2019 on a $30 million rate hike after UGI filed for a $71.1 million hike the previous January. The current settlement calls for a $20 million rate hike, and it also prevents UGI from seeking a new revenue increase until Jan. 1, 2022, at the earliest.
Headquartered near Denver, Lancaster County, UGI sells natural gas to more than 654,000 customers in 45 counties. The subsidiary of Fortune 500 company UGI Corp. has service in the Lehigh Valley and adjacent areas, including Carbon, Monroe and Berks counties.