OLYMPIA, Wash. —
Natural gas customers in the state of Washington will start seeing higher energy bills beginning Nov. 1, according to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC).
On Thursday, the UTC approved rate adjustments ranging from 4-15% for Puget Sound Energy, Cascade Natural Gas, NW Natural, and Avista natural gas customers.
The higher costs for customers are due to last winter’s colder temperatures coupled with the 2018 gas pipeline explosion in British Columbia.
Here’s a breakdown of the costs by company:
Puget Sound Energy
PSE residential customer using 64 therms a month will see an increase of 14.1%, or $8.40, for an average monthly bill of $68.00.
PSE services more than 800,000 customers in six Washington counties: King, Kittitas, Lewis, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston.
Cascade Natural Gas
An average Cascade residential customer using 55 therms a month will see an increase of 10.8%, or $5.17, for an average monthly bill of $53.23.
Cascade serves more than 220,000 residential and business customers in 68 communities throughout the state, including Aberdeen, Bellingham, Bremerton, Kennewick, Longview, Moses Lake, Mount Vernon, Sunnyside, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, and Yakima.
NW Natural
The typical NW Natural residential customer using 57 therms a month will see an increase of 4.4%, or about $2.14 a month, for an average monthly bill of $51.06.
Portland-based NW Natural provides natural gas service to about 86,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southwest Washington.
Avista Corporation
Spokane-based Avista serves nearly 169,000 natural gas customers in eastern Washington.
The average bill for a typical Avista residential natural gas customer using 66 therms will increase by 14.8%, or $7.06 a month, for an average monthly bill of $54.85.
The variation in total gas rates among Washington’s investor-owned utilities is due to regional differences in monthly residential usage, supply sources, conservation and energy efficiency programs, low-income program costs, and company gas purchasing practices.
You can learn more about the cost changes here.