Northern Utilities customers who use natural gas to heat their homes will see smaller increases in Maine than some of their counterparts elsewhere this winter.
The state’s Public Utilities Commission announced Wednesday it is limiting NU’s price increase to 6 percent for its low-income households. Without the low-income price limit, the PUC said, customers would have faced a 27 percent increase over last winter’s prices.
Even the 27 percent increase is a bargain compared to a 50 percent increase forecast for natural gas customers this winter by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Tariffs for the winter season – November through April – were approved earlier this year by the PUC. The cost of 100 cubic feet of gas (1 ccf) went from $1.337 to $1.5432. Total billed rates – the cost of gas plus service and other charges – went from $1.7501 to $1.9590 for each of the first 40 ccfs and from $1.5753 to $1.7842 for everything over that.
On Wednesday the PUC said it was taking steps to limit increases facing the state’s poorest people because the commission “concluded that (the 27 percent increase) would have imposed an undue hardship on Maine’s most vulnerable working families.”
“This could be a difficult winter and we are sensitive to the low-income customers who have to make difficult choices every day,” said Kurt Adams, the commission’s chairman, in a prepared statement.
“This benefit should help ease the burden, and the costs will be spread among all of Northern Utilities’ customers at a time when we hope we will no longer be suffering the effects of the recent hurricanes and natural gas prices will be lower.”
The PUC said the 6 percent price increase limit will be available to all Northern Utilities customers who qualify for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds, and also for people who qualify for the Voluntary Fuel Fund recently announced by Gov. John Baldacci.
The PUC estimated that the 6 percent limit available to low-income people will be worth an average of $231 to each qualifying household.
The program’s costs will be borne by all Northern Utilities customers and will probably be recovered in next winter’s natural gas rates, according to the PUC.
LIHEAP-eligible customers are people with incomes of up to 60 percent of Maine’s median income. The PUC said the Voluntary Fuel Fund eligibility standard will probably be set at 80 percent of the state’s median income.
Community Action Program agencies serve as intake centers to determine eligibility. Customers who want the 6 percent gas price limit should contact Community Concepts in the Lewiston-Auburn-Lisbon area. Northern Utilities serves homes in each of those communities.
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