- Company seeks recovery of investments in system reliability
and improvements to support new and existing customers
- Request includes rate reductions for natural gas costs and
income tax payment credits passed to customers
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 1,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Following significant
infrastructure investments in recent years to support the ongoing
reliability, safety and growth of its system, Piedmont Natural Gas
today filed a request with the North Carolina Utilities Commission
to raise its base rates. If approved, Piedmont's requested rate adjustment would
become effective in November
2024.
Piedmont seeks to recover its
prudently incurred costs to comply with federal safety regulations,
enhance the customer experience, build needed infrastructure and
provide safe, reliable natural gas service to meet the energy
demands of more than 810,000 customers in North Carolina.
Piedmont also is requesting
concurrent rate reductions for pass-through natural gas costs and
to accelerate the flowback to customers of the remaining eligible
balance of excess deferred income taxes, which will help mitigate
the overall impact to customer bills. This request represents an
overall 11.7% increase in the company's revenues over the first
year that new rates are effective. An additional overall increase
of about 0.8% would occur after the first year once the reduction
for excess deferred income taxes expires.
Piedmont requests periodic rate
adjustments to reflect fluctuations in the market price of the
natural gas it purchases for its customers. By law, Piedmont does not mark up the cost of natural
gas and must pass through the actual cost on a dollar-for-dollar
basis to customers. Market prices for wholesale natural gas are at
the lowest point in more than a decade. This trend, if it
continues, may enable Piedmont to
seek further rate reductions for pass-through natural gas costs in
the coming months.
"At Piedmont, we work hard every day to avoid increases to
customer bills and to keep costs as low as possible," said
Brian Weisker, senior vice president
and president of Piedmont Natural Gas. "The investments we've made
to strengthen and enhance our natural gas delivery system help
ensure we can meet rising demand for natural gas from new and
existing customers while also protecting our customers from
unplanned outages."
Piedmont serves six of
North Carolina's 10 most populated
cities. Its last general rate case proceeding in North Carolina was in 2021.
"Many of these investments were required for us to safely
operate in our communities, but we know price increases for any
reason can be challenging for some customers," Weisker said.
"Piedmont is here to help those
customers by offering a variety of ways to manage their bills,
including assistance programs, our Equal Payment Plan and
energy-saving tips and tools."
Level out your bill with the Equal Payment Plan (EPP)
program
Piedmont's free EPP
program helps customers manage their budgets by leveling out a
customer's natural gas bills, allowing them to pay a predictable,
equal monthly amount to help avoid billing surprises. Piedmont determines this payment by adding up
a customer's annual natural gas usage and then dividing it into the
same payment amount each month. Learn more here.
Energy-saving tips and tools
Piedmont Natural Gas also
offers a variety of energy-saving tips and tools to help
customers and our communities identify ways to save money and
energy all year long. These programs and tools help customers
understand what factors are impacting their natural gas bills and
emphasize specific actions they can take to prepare and reduce the
impacts of higher usage.
Assistance for customers in need
Share the
Warmth provides funds to local agencies to assist families
with their utility bills, no matter the source of energy they use.
Contact information for approved assistance agencies across
Piedmont's service area is
available at piedmontng.com/ShareTheWarmth.
The Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) provides
assistance to pay for natural gas, electric and other energy
sources customers use in their homes.
Piedmont says anyone in need
should apply for this and other newly available programs to see if
they qualify. For more information, go to
piedmontng.com/AssistancePrograms.
Piedmont Natural Gas
Piedmont Natural Gas, a
subsidiary of Duke Energy, distributes natural gas to more than 1.2
million residential, commercial, industrial and power generation
customers in North Carolina,
South Carolina and Tennessee. Piedmont Natural Gas earned the No.
1 spot in customer satisfaction with residential natural gas
service in the South among large utilities for the second year in a
row, according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Gas Utility Residential
Customer Satisfaction Study. More information: piedmontng.com.
Follow Piedmont Natural Gas: Twitter, Facebook.
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., is one of
America's largest energy holding companies. The company's electric
utilities serve 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio
and Kentucky, and collectively own
54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves
1.7 million customers in North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
Duke Energy is executing an ambitious clean energy transition,
keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the
forefront as the company works toward net-zero methane emissions
from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions
from electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in
major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including
expanded energy storage, renewables, natural gas and advanced
nuclear.
More information is available at duke-energy.com and the
Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy
on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook,
and visit illumination for stories about the people and
innovations powering our energy transition.
Media contact: Jason Wheatley
Media line: 877.348.3612
jason.wheatley@duke-energy.com
Twitter: @PNG_JasonW
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/piedmont-natural-gas-files-rate-adjustment-in-north-carolina-for-capital-investments-to-better-serve-customers-302104865.html
SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas