I never noticed this charge before: a “Weather Normalization Charge” of like $21 on my gas bill this past month.

So it turns out that because it was warmer than normal for this month and I used less gas to heat with, my utility rewards me by CHARGING me more anyway?

How is this shit even legal? I’m reading horror stories of people getting charged hundreds or even thousands of dollars in these so called “charges”.

It’s like the gas company telling you “Heads we win, tails you lose”.

So many fees, taxes, & ‘surcharges’ on utility bills & cell plans. It all adds up, before you get to the regular costs.

Then they ask if you want to give extra to help pay for others?

Philadelphia Gas Works or Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania? Either way, it’s approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, PPUC. You should get a credit for the same amount on a future bill when the weather is colder than normal. Link

It’s BS though. The customer are being forced to give the utilities interest free loans.

Often there is a government committee or such that regulates the price of the utility... such as so much per kilowatt or per therm for gas and so many gallons of water.... what these utility companies have discovered is even though they can't change the price of the item they are selling you they can charge some type of added on 'administrative' fee..

For a number of years Folly Beach S.C. asked for an increase in what they were charging customers for water... got denied every time and so they just added a fee for processing their customers bills.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Philadelphia Gas Works or Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania? Either way, it’s approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commision

UGI

And it sounds like it’s common in most states, I think there are a few that do not allow this practice.

It’s like you can never win, it’s always rigged against you

We cut our sq ft in half when we moved last year.
Same utility providers, but in the case of our gas bill, it went up slightly.
The fees/charges are higher & make up the difference in the lower consumption charges.
Same with our electricity, not a proportional decrease due to different charges on the bill.

The article I linked was from July of 2022 and said there were only two utilities in Pennsylvania authorized to charge weather normalization adjustments.

Lucky you! Your utility was granted that ability in September 2022. I’m sure you filed your opposition to this with PPUC during the public commentary period. I’m joking of course, nobody has time for that, but that PPUC has your back. Not.

I’d be the worst Civics teacher. “You see class, you elect people to represent you and they stab you in the back.”

Link

"Notice of Approval of Weather Normalization Adjustment

By Order entered September 15, 2022, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved UGI Utilities, Inc., – Gas Division’s (UGI) request to use a Weather Normalization Adjustment (WNA). The WNA will be applied as part of a five-year pilot program. UGI requested approval to implement a WNA as part of its Base Rate Case filed on January 28, 2022 at Docket No. R-2021-3030218.

The WNA is what is known as an “alternative rate mechanism” as defined by the Public Utility Code. Usually, utility charges either remain the same each month (such as the monthly customer charge) or vary with customer usage. The WNA is different because it addresses changes in weather-related usage that differs from normal weather conditions. The WNA is specifically designed to keep customer bills and UGI’s revenue more stable. You will begin to see WNA charges on your bills that arrive on or after November 1, 2022.

The WNA is a billing adjustment that will make your gas bills more predictable during periods of warmer or colder than normal temperatures. The adjustment will mean that the distribution charges on your bills will not vary as much with significant weather changes from normal.

The WNA will only be applied to customer bills issued for the period from October through May during each year of the pilot. The WNA will be applied to Residential and Non-Residential customers under Rate Schedules R (General Service Residential), RT (General Service Residential Transportation), N (General Service Non-Residential) and NT (General Service Non-Residential Transportation).

The WNA will be applied only if the weather is more than three percent warmer or three percent colder than normal. If the weather is more than three percent colder than normal, customers will see a WNA credit on their bill. If the weather is more than three percent warmer than normal, customers will see a WNA charge on their bill. In months where weather is within three percent of normal, bills will not have a WNA adjustment. The WNA will only affect the “Distribution Charges” portion of the bill. It will not affect the “Commodity Charge”, which is the portion of your bill that you pay for the cost of natural gas itself. The WNA will be shown on customer bills as a “Weather Normalization Adjustment”.

You may read the PUC’s Order, which explains the PUC’s approval of UGI’s WNA and UGI’s monitoring and reporting obligations related to the WNA at Docket No. R-2021-3030218 on the Pennsylvania Utility Commission Website. For more information, call UGI at 1-800-276-2722 or visit our WNA page.

UGI Utilities, Inc., – Gas Division“

Just checked and there's nothing added on to my Natural Gas Bill.

Haven’t seen that, but I did get a notification from my gas company that prices will be increasing up to 80% due to “gas exports to Europe” and “colder than normal weather in California”.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Haven’t seen that, but I did get a notification from my gas company that prices will be increasing up to 80% due to “gas exports to Europe” and “colder than normal weather in California”.

Yes isn’t it great that we get to subsidize Europe with tripled prices so they can have regular prices?

I thought I just saw Banshee state that gas supply and prices are “back to normal” in Germany

Utah only allows the gas company to charge the same amount per decatherm as the gas company pays. They make all their money in a set monthly service fee. This incentivizes them to encourage you to use as little gas as possible because they can then service more customers with the same infrastructure. It also allows them to sell excess gas into the profitable open market, particularly the highly inflated California market [/smug on] We don’t rape Mother Nature of her precious resources in CA[/Smug Off]

It sounds like a rate smoothing plan. Dominion will do that here, voluntarily. However, they take your last total six months of usage, divide by six, and you pay that monthly. Sometimes you build up a credit, and sometimes you’re in deficit. Like an escrow, they reevaluate it semi annually and adjust what you pay.

quote:

The WNA will be applied as part of a five-year pilot program.

No, it's not. Shit like this, once instituted, usually tends to continue indefinity.

Natural Gas in Orange County, Southern California went up 2 1/2 times this month. SoCal Gas says cold December back east is the cause. The meter checker employee said Ukraine… I guess it’s time to accept the new normal?…

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

It sounds like a rate smoothing plan. Dominion will do that here, voluntarily. However, they take your last total six months of usage, divide by six, and you pay that monthly. Sometimes you build up a credit, and sometimes you’re in deficit. Like an escrow, they reevaluate it semi annually and adjust what you pay.

Nope, this is not budget billing which I’m well aware of and use for my gas billing. This is an extra charge of $21 that month just because it happened to be warmer than normal and I used less gas. I saw horror stories of people getting charged an extra $150-$200 per month, I got off easy

What's the name of your gas provider ?

This is how it works :
https://www.inquirer.com/busin...nt-cost-charges.html

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

It sounds like a rate smoothing plan.

From the utility’s point of view, it’s a revenue smoothing plan. The utility is getting an interest free loan from its customers during periods that revenue is lower than expected. It will pay the money back to its customers during periods that revenue is higher than expected.

The question should be: Is this good for the customer? Of course from the utility’s point of view, the answer is yes. By not paying interest, the utility saves money which should be good for its customers. If customers have to get a loan to float the utility for a couple months, then it isn’t good for the customers. For example, if PASig has to use a credit card to pay the extra $21 he was charged and can’t pay that back until he gets the $21 credit on his gas bill, then the weather normalization charge system would cost him more than the utility saves.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

It sounds like a rate smoothing plan. Dominion will do that here, voluntarily. However, they take your last total six months of usage, divide by six, and you pay that monthly. Sometimes you build up a credit, and sometimes you’re in deficit. Like an escrow, they reevaluate it semi annually and adjust what you pay.

Nope, this is not budget billing which I’m well aware of and use for my gas billing. This is an extra charge of $21 that month just because it happened to be warmer than normal and I used less gas. I saw horror stories of people getting charged an extra $150-$200 per month, I got off easy

I seem to recall you posting a few times about converting to Natural Gas (from Oil) and 'locking-in' a crazy low rate for two years that was like 35% lower than what the people that were NOT 'locked-in' were paying...And that was a year ago! Prices seem to have increased another 80% since then!

Honestly, it seems you're getting off easy here...My natural gas rate increased over 88% last year!

The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks...