Citing the need to receive compensation for the upgrades it has made on its natural gas delivery system, North Carolina Natural Gas (NCNG) said Tuesday that it has filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) seeking a general increase in service rates.

Since the Raleigh, NC-based utility’s last general rate increase in 1995, NCNG said it has invested more than $326 million to expand natural gas supply and service in central and eastern North Carolina, adding 40,000 customers, 596 miles of distribution pipeline and 329 miles of transmission pipeline. The company now delivers gas to 178,000 residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers.

In its filing, NCNG is requesting a 12% overall rate increase, or $46.9 million. If approved, the average residential customer would pay about $5.18 to $13.31 more each month, depending upon the amount of gas used. Currently, a typical NCNG residential customer using 67 dekatherms of natural gas annually pays an average of $60 a month throughout the year.

“Over the last eight years, NCNG has made significant investments to deliver natural gas in a safe, efficient and environmentally friendly manner, and those investments have greatly enhanced the reliability of service to customers,” said Don Davis, president of NCNG. “Given the scope of those investments and the overall effects of inflation, rates set in 1995 just are not adequate to cover our cost 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 Nov. 1.

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