Aug. 3—PRINCETON — A natural gas provider has filed with the Public Service Commission of West Virginia for a rate increase which could add more than $25 to residential customers' monthly bills.

Mountaineer Gas Company applied on July 28 with the state PSC for increased rates impacting about 220,000 customers in the counties it serves. Locally, these counties include Mercer, McDowell, Monroe, Summers and Wyoming.

If the state PSC approves the increase, the average monthly bill for natural gas would increase by $25.08, an increase of 34.7 percent, according to the legal notice published Tuesday in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. The proposed increased rates would become effective on Nov. 1 unless otherwise ordered by the Public Service Commission.

The proposed rate increases would raise the company's revenue by about $90,914,544 annually, an increase of approximately 73.8 percent, according to the legal notice.

Each of West Virginia's natural gas utilities file every year for increases by Aug. 1, according to Susan Small, a spokesperson for the PSC.

"These cases come in every year," she said. "There's usually not as much of a change as we're anticipating this year."

Rates increase due to rises in the cost of natural gas. The price are set by the national market for natural gas, and not by the PSC, Small said.

The cost of obtaining natural gas, called the Purchased Gas Adjustment (PGA), compensates utilities for what they pay for gas and does not include any profit for the companies.

No public hearings had been scheduled as of Tuesday, but they could be scheduled at a later date, Small said.

Requests for the PSC to intervene can be mailed to Executive Secretary, Public Service Commission of West Virginia, P.O. Box 812, Charleston WV 25323. Protests can be filed online through the commission's website using the "Submit a Comment" link or may be mailed to the Executive Secretary, Public Service Commission of West Virginia, P.O. Box 812, Charleston WV 25323.

Charlotte Lane, chairman of the Public Service Commission, said recently that the price utilities are currently paying for natural gas are three times higher than they were the first of the year, making it a 300 percent increase.

Lane said most natural gas utilities have a budget payment plan. These plans look at a customer's gas usage over the past 12 months, "normalize the usage based on weather experiences and calculate an average monthly bill based on the company's current rates."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com