NEWBERRY COUNTY — The Clinton-Newberry Natural Gas Authority voted to remove the monthly facilities charge from all bills for the next three months.
General Manager Stan Bryson said the decision was made to help relieve some burden financial for their customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was made during the April 28 board meeting.
“Starting with the billing that will go out May 5, all customers will have the facility charge removed for the next three months. It does not sound like much, but the total cost for CNNGA will be about $650,000 — at a time when natural gas rates are at an all time low,” Bryson said.
The facility charge is a fee that helps pay the CNNGA’s demand side bill to the pipelines. The charges CNNGA receives from Transco Pipeline and Dominion Pipeline are to reserve space for CNNGA to transport the natural gas purchased for CNNGA customers. CNNGA’s demand cost is about $290,000 per month, before any natural gas flows to the customer.
Bryson said the facility charge is about $14 a month on a customers’ bill, this will be a savings of about $42 during the three month period.
The motion to remove the monthly facilities charge was made by Board Member Danny Cook, and seconded by Board Member Zebbie Goudelock. The vote was unanimous.
“Many people are already experiencing financial challenges, so anything that we can do to make it easier for our customers is our goal. With the waiving of the facilities charge, low natural gas prices and warm weather, residential customer bills should be pretty small. For customers who use natural gas for their furnaces only, their bills should be zero for a couple of months with summer weather coming,” said Chairman Foster Senn.