Gas Bills have Arizonians Upset

Mar 09 - Arizona Daily Star

Having gobbled up a utility already lean in customer good will, Tucson-based UniSource Energy is now experiencing a little corporate indigestion.

This discomfort is brought on by howling customers of the company's newly acquired natural-gas business, and particularly customers in Prescott.

Members of the Arizona Corporation Commission - the all-powerful body in regulated-utility matters - are indignant at the predictable results of rate structures carefully deliberated and approved by the ACC.

An unusual confluence of factors have helped to spike gas bills for customers of the new UniSource Energy Services subsidiary running former Citizens Communications gas and electric properties around the state. Gas bills have increased, in some cases, 60 percent or more from last winter.

The grumbling is understandable but predictable.

ACC regulators approved a 21 percent hike in basic gas rates at the time of the UniSource takeover. Customers now get much higher bills from a company unfamiliar to them, raising suspicions. The ACC also decided to let UniSource collect $7 million in past-due fuel surcharges, piling on, in effect, two rate increases at once.

Unseasonable cold added to the rate shock by adding usage increases to higher commodity prices. = Rate shock!

Hundreds of Prescott-area customers have complained to the utility and/or the commission. Things are a little quieter in the Tucson service area, where Southwest Gas operates.

Tucson usage is also up due to colder weather, but complaints are nothing out of the ordinary, according to Southwest Gas.

Tucson in January registered 366 heating degree days - which measure demand for energy used for heating - compared with 204 heating degree days in the same month last year and a 10-year average of 356 such days.

Nationally, utilities estimate that natural-gas users will see an overall increase of 11 percent in costs this season compared with last winter.

Kris Mayes, the newest member of the corporation commission, has hinted darkly of "profiteering at the expense of ratepayers" in this matter.

Which brings us to a little- known fact concerning commission- approved rates governing gas utilities.

Guess what the rate of return, or profit margin, is for Southwest Gas or UniSource Energy Services on the gas commodity portion of a monthly bill - 18 percent? 12 percent? 6 percent? 3 percent? It's zero.

Gas utilities earn a limited rate of return on getting the commodity to the user. They only pass through the commodity price of gas.

Southwest Gas estimates that after the $8 monthly service charge, for the first 40 therms of gas used, a residential customer pays just over half the 99-cents-per-therm rate for system service and half for the actual gas commodity.

The current allowable rate of return for Southwest Gas is 9.19 percent - and the company has never hit that rate since 1990.

Commissioner Mayes did not actually vote on the rate matters in question. She was appointed to the post last fall. She is most vocal about alleged lack of notice by UniSource Energy Services to its new customer base.

UniSource acknowledges it could have done a better job of warning customers of coming rate hikes and how surcharges and rising gas prices would affect their bills, although notice was sent to customers.

But there is nothing sneaky or illegal going on here. It's regulation at work.

Gas customers would benefit in the long run by paying more in monthly service charges to cover the utility's ongoing expenses and leveling out fuel commodity charges over time through reasonable and predictable adjusters. Customers have always had the option of "budget billing," which averages out monthly bills year-round to a predetermined amount.

Regulators have a responsibility to be informed and fair not only to consumers, but also to the big, nasty utilities they regulate.

But, of course, customers vote in larger numbers than utilities.

Commissioner Mayes, by the way, is from Prescott, where most of the noise is coming from in the gas bill ruckus.

The terms of four of the five sitting commissioners are up this year.

Contact Richard Ducote at 573-4178 or ducote@azstarnet.com .