At a time most companies are seeking an increase in their gas cost adjustment (CGA) rates, Unitil Corp. said its subsidiary, Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Co. (FG&E), is heading in the other direction, filing a request to decrease its CGA adjustment rates with the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (MDTE).

FG&E said the rate decrease request was brought on by a drop in the cost of gas supply. The utility noted that customers who are purchasing their gas from another supplier will not be affected by the decrease.

If approved, a typical residential heating customer using 150 therms per month in the winter would see a bill of $183.19, marking a decrease of $28.52 or 13.5% from last winter’s rates at the end of the season and a decrease of $6.27 or 3.3% from current summer rates. FG&E noted that similar decreases would be seen for business customers.

In Massachusetts, CGA rates are normally adjusted every six months to reflect changes in wholesale supply costs incurred by the local distribution company to provide gas to its customers. Initially based on estimates, the rates are then reconciled to actual costs at the end of the period, with interest on over- or under-collections.

Pending MDTE approval, the proposed rates would go into effect Nov. 1, 2003.

The gas cost decrease application follows closely on the utility’s electric rate hike petition last month (see Power Market Today, Aug. 5). FG&E’s proposed rate for standard offer service would increase from $0.05602 per kWh to $0.06124 per kWh. This rate change would result in an increase of $2.61 per month, or 3.9%, for a standard offer residential customer using 500 kWh per month, resulting in a total monthly bill of $68.84.

Roughly 68% of Unitil/FG&E’s electric customers are on standard offer service. The standard offer price is based upon a fixed contract price each year, adjusted by an index factor for the market price of generation fuels such as natural gas and oil.

Unitil is a public utility holding company with subsidiaries providing electric service in New Hampshire, electric and gas service in Massachusetts and energy services throughout the Northeast.

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