Cinergy Corp. has a late Christmas gift for its natural-gas customers, courtesy of warmer temperatures and tumbling prices on the nation's wholesale markets.

The company's utility subsidiaries on Thursday rolled back their previously announced natural-gas prices for January to reflect revised gas cost estimates filed with regulators in Ohio and Kentucky.

So instead of the whopping 21 percent increase to $1.48 per hundred cubic feet initially posted by Union Light, Heat & Power Co. in Northern Kentucky, the revised price of $1.22 will actually be lower than December's by a fraction of a penny. Likewise in Ohio, Cincinnati Gas & Electric customers will be billed a revised price of $1.22 - a penny lower than December's rate - rather than $1.34 as was initially filed for January.

A typical CG&E residential bill for January, based on year-round even billing for 10,800 cubic feet of gas each month, will be $166.61, down less than $1 compared to December but up 37 percent from January 2005.

Customers who are not on even-billing plans, and who are billed each month based on their actual consumption, could still see much higher charges compared to their December bills, however, simply because it was so cold earlier this month.

In Northern Kentucky, ULH&P residential customers will see a bigger decrease in their January bills compared to December's. A typical bill, again based on even billing, will be $175.91, down from $183.07 this month but still up 43 percent from $122.83 in January 2005.

Northern Kentucky customers will benefit not only from a drop in the gas price but also from a rollback in distribution rates ordered by the Kentucky Public Services Commission last week.

The distribution rate is what Cinergy charges for delivering gas to people's houses. Cinergy was permitted to begin collecting higher rates in October before the commission approved the requested rate hike, but then the commission scaled back the increase the company sought and ordered it to refund any overcharges with interest. Customers should see a refund credit on their bills by March.

Contracts for January delivery closed Thursday at $1.12 per hundred cubic feet. The price topped $1.50 earlier in the month when the region was in the midst of a prolonged cold spell.

Copyright 1995-2005. The Cincinnati Enquirer, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper.