PECO said that its natural gas rates are made up of two main parts, the delivery and service charges and the commodity charge. The delivery and service charges reportedly remain unchanged since 1988 and are the lowest in Pennsylvania, according to the utility. Those charges reflect PECO’s natural gas operating and maintenance costs, mainly the cost of moving gas on its distribution system to individual users.
The gas commodity charge or purchased gas cost rate is the part of the bill that increased on March 1, 2007, and reflects only the cost PECO pays to secure natural gas on behalf of customers without any markup. This part of the rate can change each quarter and represents about 80% of the total bill and is a direct pass through of the company’s purchased gas cost. The new overall cost for gas service has increased from $1.28 per hundred cubic feet (ccf) of gas to $1.39 per ccf, or about $10.50 a month.
Mark Alden, vice president of the gas division, said: We purchase our natural gas supply in a variety of ways to blunt large spikes in price that can occur throughout the winter heating season on the open wholesale market, and to keep prices as stable as possible.
