SaskEnergy residential customers could soon be paying less for their natural gas bill.
The Saskatchewan rate review panel recommended Tuesday SaskEnergy’s commodity rate be reduced to $2.575/GJ from $2.65/GJ.
It also said a proposed 3.9 per cent increase to the delivery rate should be approved, which would increase the average delivery rate for residential customers by $1.76 per month.
The panel said the combined recommendations would result in an 11 per cent decrease to the average residential customer’s bill – roughly $101 annually.
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The rate changes will take effect April 1 if approved by cabinet.
The panel also recommended SaskEnergy changes its billing methods.
It noted the Crown corporation purchases natural gas in energy units (gigajoules), then delivers and bills the gas in cubic metres.
“Since gas from different sources has different heat values, the fixed conversion factor from gigajoules to cubic metres creates inequities for customers in different regions,” the panel stated.
“Since the delivery rate also has a volumetric component, this also results in a loss or gain to the company. Billing by volume also requires SaskEnergy to forecast this conversion value far in advance of the actual delivery.”
The panel said billing in heat value would ensure equity and fairness to all customers and protect the company against abnormal swings in gas heat values.
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