According to a recent release from Pacific Northern Gas, customers are paying less this year for gas than they were this time last year.
According to the email, “rates have decreased for most PNG residential customers. This is due to the lower commodity price of natural gas, allowing us to pass on these savings.”
PNG does not mark up prices on the natural gas itself, and prices have been lower recently.
According to PNG, the average customer in Tumbler Ridge paid 9.7 percent less in Q4 of 2022, or $167.09 less.
Natural gas rates across the entire PNG service area were down, with Tumbler Ridge having the largest decrease.
In the western service area (which also has the highest rates of any of PNG’s five service areas) rates were down $96.24.
Only Granisle—which has propane service to its 300 residents—saw their costs go up, as the cost of propane is up this year.
PNG is also looking to consolidate its rates across its service areas— PNG West, Granisle, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and Tumbler Ridge.
Historically, each area has been treated as its own service area. When delivery costs go up—due to upgrades to infrastructure, etc.—each service area bears the brunt of that increase.
But because Tumbler Ridge has a much smaller population than, say, Fort St. John, each household pays a larger amount of that burden.
So, lets say PNG puts in $10,000 worth of improvements in both Tumbler Ridge and Fort St. John. There are about 8000 houses in Fort St. John, so each household would pay an additional $1.25.
In Tumbler Ridge, where there are less than 800 houses, each household would have to cough up an additional $12.50.
This means that Tumbler Ridge delivery rates are $12.528 per Gigajoule (Gj), while Fort St. John residents pay nearly half that, or $6.35.
Add in the cost of the natural gas itself, a base charge, and about a half dozen other charges, and your Fort St. John resident is paying $11.083/Gj.
In Tumbler Ridge, we’re paying $16.684.
Dawson Creek residents pay the lowest rate, at $10.885, while people in PNG West (from Vanderhoof West to Prince Rupert, including Terrace and Kitimat) pay the highest, at $18.297.
In Granisle, where the town is run on propane, costs are $32.937/Gj.
But PNG is hoping to change to a single rate model.
“We believe this proposed gas cost consolidation will provide customers with the right balance of pricing simplicity, fairness and efficiency,” they say on their website. “Other utilities in British Columbia also have consolidated commodity charges.”
By consolidating their rates, they say most residential and small commercial customers will see a reduction in their overall rates. A residential customer in Dawson Creek would see their natural gas bill drop by about one percent, or $10–$20 per year.
In Tumbler Ridge, that drop would be “much higher”, though PNG doesn’t say exactly how much.
Larger commercial customers would see a bill increase of up to three percent.
According to PNG, they are hoping to make this transition by the end of 2023.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
