Idaho Regulators approve Intermountain Gas rate adjustment: Residential bills down, commercial bills up

The following is a press release from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission:

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has approved an application from Intermountain Gas that will decrease the rates for some customers and increase rates for others.

The utility had sought commission approval to decrease rates for residential customers and increase rates for large volume, commercial and transport customers. The typical residential customer’s monthly bill will decrease by $0.06, or 0.03 percent. The other customer groups will see their monthly bills increase between $435.10 and $649.24, depending on their rate schedule.

The utility’s rates include a base-rate component and a natural gas-related cost, Purchased Gas Cost Adjustment (PGA), component. The base-rate component is intended to cover fixed costs to serve customers and those costs rarely change. The PGA is a commission-approved mechanism that adjusts rates up or down to reflect changes in the utility’s costs to buy natural gas from suppliers, including changes in transportation, storage, and other related costs. Intermountain Gas defers the costs into its PGA account and passes them on to customers through an increase or decrease in rates.

The changes in the PGA are due to an increase in estimated gas commodity and transportation costs for the approaching year, offset by lower estimated storage costs and over-collected gas costs from the prior PGA.