Missouri Commission Approves Summit Natural Gas Rate Changes Following Wholesale Price Fluctuations

The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved a series of changes to Summit Natural Gas of Missouri Inc.’s rates to reflect the wholesale cost of natural gas and the company’s Actual Cost Adjustment factor, according to a November 12 press release.

For its Gallatin Division, residential customers will see a rate decrease from $0.43 per hundred cubic feet to $0.36 per hundred cubic feet. According to the company, this will cause an average winter month residential gas bill to decrease by approximately $8.57. In the Warsaw and Lake of the Ozarks Divisions, residential customers will see a rate hike from $0.39 per hundred cubic feet to approximately $0.45 per hundred cubic feet, causing the average monthly residential gas bill to increase by approximately $3.44 for the same period. Finally, residential customers in the Rogersville and Branson Divisions will see their rates drop to approximately $0.33 per hundred cubic feet, a decrease of approximately $0.13 per hundred cubic feet, leading to average bills for the period going down by about $12.90.

The actual cost adjustment factor is a mechanism that tracks any over-collection or under-collection of actual natural gas costs over a 12 month period. The net over- or under-collected balances are subsequently either refunded or collected the next year. The wholesale cost of natural gas is not regulated by the Missouri Public Service Commission. The wellhead cost of natural gas is unregulated and is primarily driven by supply, demand and the weather.

Summit Natural Gas serves approximately 20,600 natural gas customers in Missouri.