Cascade proposes natural gas rate increase

Cascade Natural Gas is asking the state of Washington to approve an increase of almost 9 percent for residential customers in the state.

The proposed increase would cost the average residential customer, who uses 54 therms of natural gas a month, an additional $4.87 per month, or $59.34.

This is the first time since 2006 that the company based in Kennewick has asked for a general rate increase, said Cascade spokesman Mark Hanson. Prices are adjusted annually with state approval to reflect the cost of natural gas, but not labor and infrastructure expenses.

“To ensure that our system is safe and reliable we have made significant investments in our natural gas infrastructure,” said Scott Madison, Cascade general manager, in a statement.

The improvements have helped the natural gas distributor serve more customers, Hanson said. The additional customers and work to keep expenses down have allowed the company to delay a request for a general rate increase for nine years, but now growth has slowed.

The infrastructure work also focused on replacing pipelines to improve safety. Additional employees have been hired, in part to increase safety by conducting leak surveys.

Cascade is restricting the rate increase to residential customers to bring rates more in line with the cost of service, it said.

The increase would produce about $10.5 million in additional revenue annually, or about a 4.2 percent increase to revenue overall. Cascade serves about 204,00 customers in 65 Washington communities, including the Tri-Cities.

The increase approved after Cascade’s request in 2006 was for 2.7 percent.

The company told the state Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission that it participates in a program to provide assistance to low-income customers and also has a program that about 10 percent of its Washington customers use to pay estimated costs throughout the year to reduce the volatility of monthly bills. For more information, go to www.cngc.com.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Cascade proposes natural gas rate increase."