CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Customers of Mountaineer Gas Company will see an interim increase in their monthly bills beginning November 1.
Vice President of Gas Supply and Technical Services Thomas Westfall said gas utilities are required by the state Public Service Commission to submit a filing on or before August 1 to adjust their purchased gas cost rates. These rates will apply for the next year, from November through October 2026.
IIn the company’s filing, Mountaineer Gas proposed a $44.5 million increase, which would raise residential customers’ monthly bills by 15.6%, or about $12.51. Commercial customers would see an increase of 19.8% (approximately $62.49), industrial customers 9.2% ($440), and resale customers 28.1% ($1,479).
Westfall said the increase will go toward the cost of natural gas itself, as well as other expenses associated with purchasing the gas.
“Those gas cost rates include our cost for the commodity itself for the natural gas, plus the transportation, and storage and the pipeline cost, state B&O taxes, and other factors,” he said.
Westfall said that they did see a significant reduction last year where the cost was reduced by $38.6 million.
Westfall explained that once the company files its proposal, it goes through the PSC’s review and public notice processes. After those are completed, the filing is audited by the PSC and reviewed by the Consumer Advocate Division. This is followed by a hearing, and final approval typically comes at the beginning of the new year.
Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer Scott Klemm said that when the company makes its filing, it is simply a projection of what they believe the costs will be.
“When we make our filing, it is based upon what we project our gas cost to be, including transportation and storage,” Klemm said. “Obviously, the natural gas prices will either be higher or lower than what we estimated and that’s what goes into that under and over recovery.”
Over recovery refers to when the costs applied to products or services are higher than the actual expenses and under recovery refers to when the local gas prices are lower than international prices which creates a gap in what a company charges and what they actually receive.
Westfall said the current numbers will remain in place until the next filing, unless the PSC identifies an issue during its review before finalizing the rates at the beginning of the year. He added that if any changes are required, the company will make sure they are reflected in the final filing.
However, Westfall said he doesn’t expect any issues with the filing.
“It’s very transparent, and all of the transactions that we do to purchase gas the contracts, and everything are very much open book to the Public Service Commission and we don’t suspect there will be any adjustments,” he said.
Klemm emphasized that this process occurs every year and that the cost is passed directly to customers to help cover expenses, with the company making no profit from it.
“This is just a pass-through cost, so when gas prices go up or transportation costs go up from our pipeline suppliers, we just pass that cost onto our customers and when the prices go down, we ultimately pass those lower prices to our customers as well,” he said.
