Marking its first petition for a rate increase in seven years, Progress Energy subsidiary, NCNG, said Monday that it has filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC), seeking an increase in natural gas service rates for its customers. The company said it is seeking to recover the cost of serving its 176,000 residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers.

NCNG said it has invested more than $200 million to expand natural gas supply and service in central and eastern North Carolina, adding 33,927 customers, 479 miles of distribution pipeline and 306 miles of transmission pipeline since its last rate increase in 1995. NCNG is seeking a 16% overall rate increase, or $47.6 million. If approved, the average residential customer would pay approximately $8 more each month once the increase takes effect. Today, a typical NCNG residential customer using 67 Dth of natural gas annually pays an average of $49 a month throughout the year.

“We have held our rates stable and postponed filing as long as possible, because we understand and appreciate how rate increases affect our customers,” said Don Davis, president of NCNG. “Over the last seven years, we have made significant investments to deliver natural gas in the safest, most efficient and most environmentally friendly ways possible, and these investments have greatly enhanced the reliability of the system on behalf of our customers. Given the scope of those investments and the overall effects of inflation, rates set in 1995 are no longer adequate to cover NCNG’s costs of conducting business and serving customers.”

The company added that its service territory in North Carolina is especially expensive to serve because of its distance from interstate pipelines and its pockets of sparsely populated areas. If the NCUC approves NCNG’s request, the new rates would take effect next fall. NCNG has lowered the fuel cost portion of its rates three times within the last 12 months.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.