Kennewick, WA. – Cascade Natural Gas filed a natural gas rate increase request with the Oregon Public Utility Commission Tuesday. If approved, it would increase residential customers’ monthly bill by an average of $1.88 a month.
“To ensure that our system is safe and reliable we have made significant investments in our natural gas infrastructure,” said Scott Madison, executive vice president and general manager of Cascade.
The main reason for the rate increase request is to recover the cost of the increased investment in natural gas facilities. The projected 2015 year-end total gross investment by Cascade for Oregon natural gas operations is $193 million, compared with $41 million in 1988 when the last general rate case was filed.
The proposed increase is for $3.6 million annually over current rates, or a 5.11 percent overall increase.
The proposed increase for each rate class, which is based on rate class studies, is:
Residential 3.48 percent
Commercial 5.98 percent
Industrial 6.78 percent
The Oregon PUC has up to 10 months is issue a decision on the proposed increase request.
Cascade serves about 68,000 customers in 25 Oregon communities.
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