Pennsylvania regulators approved rate increases for customers of Duquesne Light and Columbia Gas on Thursday.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted in favor of settlements the utilities had reached with their respective stakeholders earlier this year. The increases take effect in the coming weeks.
The average residential customer of Duquesne Light will see a $4.23 (about 4%) increase in their monthly bill. Commercial customers’ bills will increase by $36.80 (also 4%) while industrial electric consumers will experience a bump of $353.26 per month, (a 2% increase). Customers should expect the new rates beginning Jan. 15.
Downtown-based Duquesne Light delivers electricity to some 600,000 clients in Allegheny and Beaver counties.
Like Duquesne Light, Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, the Canonsburg-based subsidiary of NiSource Inc., also was granted an increase below its initial request, as is customary with utility rate cases.
The average Columbia residential monthly bill will increase by $8.33 (around 8%) beginning Dec. 29.
These increases are not related to the recent fluctuations in the cost of natural gas, a commodity that utilities cannot mark up. Those costs are adjusted throughout the year and passed through to customers who stay with the utility as their generation supplier instead of actively shopping for an alternative.
Customers who anticipate the increases will impair their ability to keep up with their bills can call their utilities to find out about payments plans and assistance programs.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com
First Published: December 16, 2021, 8:45 p.m.