Piedmont Natural Gas, which distributes gas to about 710,000 customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, said Thursday that its residential customers will see reduced rates yet again beginning Feb.1 because of reductions in the company’s wholesale costs. The rate reductions will be the seventh since last winter for North Carolina and the fifth for South Carolina customers.

The Charlotte, NC-based company said that if its filings to lower rates are approved, Piedmont’s average residential customers will see natural gas bills decline by 30-50% this winter compared to last winter, with a savings of between $200 and $250 on average, assuming normal weather through March.

“Following the prolonged period of increasing wholesale gas costs nationwide last year, increasing supply, milder weather and reduced demand have had a positive effect on wholesale gas costs this year,” said the company in a statement. “Increases in customer bills last winter were due to unusually high wholesale commodity prices for natural gas on the national market, combined with record cold weather in the early part of the 2000-01 winter.”

Piedmont, the second largest natural gas utility in the Southeast, noted that weather on the company’s system in the Carolinas was 40% warmer than normal in November; 20% warmer in December; and has been 20% warmer than normal since Nov. 1. “In contrast, weather in December of 2000 was 37% colder than normal in the company’s service area.” Piedmont’s winter period is November through March.

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