The Oregon Public Utility Commission and Northwest Natural Gas Corp. announced a settlement related to three utility property transactions that will result in a $1.28 million refund to the natural gas utility’s customers. All the deals related to commercial property deals in the City of Portland that came under the PUC’s scrutiny as part of the regulatory commission staff’s general rate auditing.

The refund monies will be credited to customers through the utility’s annual purchased gas adjustment filing. The rate adjustments take place Oct. 1 each year. In addition, a proposed utility charge of $331,000 in parking costs will be eliminated from customer rates through Aug. 31, 2013, a PUC spokesperson in Salem, OR, said.

PUC Chairman Lee Beyer lauded the regulatory staff for “unraveling the complicated transactions” resulting in the recovery for retail customers. “Overall, this is a fair, reasonable outcome for all involved,” he said, referring to Northwest Natural stipulating to the refund as part of its pending rate case.

One transaction involved Northwest Natural selling a piece of property next to its headquarters in downtown Portland and using the profits to offset employee parking costs. A second transaction related to the utility investing in a limited liability company with which it later entered into a parking lease agreement, and the third deal involved Northwest leasing property to the City of Portland in 1999 while continuing to include part of the property taxes on the parcel in customer rates.

The rate case stipulation resolves all issues related to the three property transactions.

©Copyright 2004 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.