State’s 3 gas utilities raising rates

CenterPoint bills up 19% for winter; increasing costs cited

Arkansas’ three natural gas utilities will raise their rates starting today, primarily because of the increase in the price of natural gas, the companies told the state’s Public Service Commission on Monday.

The three companies — CenterPoint Energy, Black Hills Energy and Arkansas Oklahoma Gas — were required to file their winter rates by Monday. The rates take effect today and end March 31.

The companies report their natural gas costs to the commission each year at the end of October. Those costs are passed along to customers, and the utilities are not allowed to take a profit. The commission is not required to hold hearings to approve the rate changes.

Monthly bills for CenterPoint Energy, the largest natural gas utility in the state with about 403,000 customers, will increase 19 percent compared with last winter. So a customer with a $100 bill last winter will have a monthly bill of $119.

About 8 percentage points of CenterPoint’s increase are driven by the change in the natural gas prices, said Alicia Dixon, a CenterPoint spokesman. The other 11 points of the increase are based on the change in CenterPoint’s base rate, as well as other charges.

The commission apU.S.

proved a base-rate increase for CenterPoint in September, and customers have seen that increase on their monthly bills. It was the first base rate increase for CenterPoint in eight years.

Black Hills’ rates will rise 9.18 percent, meaning a customer who had a monthly bill of $100 last winter will have a bill of $109.18 with the same usage this winter, said Rich Davis, Black Hills’ manager of community and government affairs.

Black Hills, which has about 163,000 customers in northern Arkansas, bought SourceGas this year.

Arkansas Oklahoma Gas, which has about 45,000 customers in the Fort Smith area, will have a 13 percent increase in its bill compared with last year, said Kim Linam, president of the utility.

That means a customer with a $100 monthly bill last year will have a monthly bill of $113 this winter.

“It’s just the national landscape of natural gas prices being higher than they were last winter,” Linam said, “because our rates are based on the indexes that are published nationally.”

Even with the increases announced Monday, natural gas prices are still significantly lower than in the past.

“It’s safe to say that while [natural gas] prices are higher than they were last year, they are still lower than they were several years ago,” said John Bethel, executive director of the commission’s general staff.

The cost of natural gas has increased about 20 percent compared with October last year, said James Williams, an energy economist who owns WTRG Economics near Russellville.

Natural gas prices were $2.50 per 1 million British thermal units about 12 months ago, Williams said. This year, the price is about $3, he said.

A Btu is the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit.

The National Weather Service anticipates that chances are better for above-normal temperatures in the state this winter, said Chris Buonanno, the science and operations officer at the weather service’s office in North Little Rock. The southern half of the state is likely to have below-normal precipitation this winter compared with last winter, Buonanno said.

Even with the increases announced Monday, natural gas prices are still significantly lower than in the past.