Dominion East Ohio, a subsidiary of Dominion, will soon file a $73 million base rate increase, the first it has proposed since 1994, with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), the company said Friday.

The new rates would apply to all 1.2 million customers in Dominion’s East Ohio and West Ohio service territories. If approved, typical residential customers would see an increase of less than $4.50, or 4%, in their monthly bills.

“Dominion East Ohio has controlled costs through prudent management, cost containment efforts and enhanced technology. However, virtually every area of the company has experienced increased costs of operation because of inflation, taxes, federal and state regulatory changes and required maintenance of nearly 31,000 miles of underground pipeline and related facilities,” said DEO Chairman Thomas F. Farrell II.

Natural gas commodity costs have increased considerably during the past 13 years, but DEO does not earn a profit on the natural gas commodity itself. Natural gas costs comprise approximately 75% of the customer’s bill.

DEO expects to file the rate increase proposal in about 30 days. The company anticipates that the new rates will not go into effect until the second quarter of 2008.

Erin Biehl of the Ohio Consumer’s Council said the OCC will be keeping a close eye on DEO’s rate increase proposal as it goes through the PUCO approval process.

“We will be participating in this case and once Dominion East Ohio files all of their rate information and data we’ll be scrutinizing the numbers to make sure everything is appropriately reflecting their increasing costs and everything basically evens out the way they say it does,” Biehl said.

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