A rate increase was approved Monday for Atmos Energy’s natural gas residential customers.
The company had requested an increase that would have raised bills for residential customers about $4.33 per month in the winter and $3.41 per month in the summer, according to a news release from the Kansas Corporation Commission.
The increase that was approved Monday will allow 35 cents more per month in the winter and 11 cents more per month in the summer, according to the KCC. The increase will be a little over $3 a year for average residents.
Parts of Wyandotte County are served by Atmos Energy.
According to the KCC, instead of a net revenue increase, the order calls for a net revenue decrease of $223,953. The slight increase in residential ratepayers’ bills is designed to better align rates between customer classes and reduce the subsidization of the residential class by the commercial sales class, according to the KCC.
The rate case also addressed return on equity and the creation of a system integrity program to accelerate the replacement of aging infrastructure, the KCC stated.
Atmos initially proposed a return on equity of 10.25 percent. The KCC opted to stay with the current return on equity of 9.1 percent, stating the proposed return on equity ran counter to the downward trends in Kansas and nationwide because of lower costs of capital.
The system integrity program was denied, based on the current proposal, according to the KCC. The door was left open for the company to make the recommended adjustments and initiate a new filing with the KCC if desired, according to the KCC.
The KCC’s order is online at http://estar.kcc.ks.gov/estar/ViewFile.aspx?Id=fd4bf519-8109-4591-a339-86922f6bc68f.