Piedmont Natural Gas Files to Reduce Its Rates

If you are a customer of Piedmont Natural Gas, you may find a pleasant surprise in your bill starting next month.

The Charlotte-based utility announced Thursday it has filed to reduce it's natural gas rates in the Carolinas, including here in the Upstate.

If approved by utilities regulators in SC and NC, the rate reductions could take effect as soon as Feb. 1, the utility said. Monthly bills would be cut from 7.5 to 9.5 percent, saving the average consumer as much as $10 each month, the utility reported.

"That's wonderful news; any money I can possibly save is a godsend," said 71-year-old Molly Hagins of Mauldin, who lives by herself on a fixed income. "Even with this recent warm spell, I still need to run my heat round the clock to help ease my medical conditions and because I'm on blood thinners. I can't recall the last time anybody actually cut their rates. It seems like they're always raising them."

Piedmont's request to lower its rates comes in response to continuing moderation in wholesale natural gas costs — the costs that Piedmont pays for the natural gas it delivers to its customers, the utility explained in a press release. "Since 2008, the wholesale cost of natural gas has been driven dramatically lower as a result of increased natural gas production from domestic shale gas supply resources."

Piedmont said rates actually have been coming down since 2008.

For Piedmont's typical residential customer in North Carolina and South Carolina, the reduction in natural gas rates since 2008 has been between 30 percent and 40 percent, according to the utility. "As a result, a normal February natural gas bill for a Piedmont Natural Gas residential customer in 2013 would be approximately $45-$75 less than the same residential bill in 2008."