Vermont Gas has filed to raise rates by 2.9%, citing rising natural gas costs and investments in safety and climate change measures.
“We know that families and businesses rely on us to provide safe, clean, reliable and affordable energy,” VGS CEO Don Rendall said in a statement on Friday. “Today’s filing continues our customers on a path of low and stable rates while we advance our transition to cleaner energy.”
Residential customers would on average see their rates go up by just under $3 a month this October if the state Public Utility Commission approves the request.
The utility, which serves 52,000 households and businesses in Addison, Chittenden and Franklin counties, filed for an increase to its “base rate,” which goes toward operating expenses and infrastructure. The utility cites safety and maintenance work — like leak surveys, mainline replacements and plant upgrades — as the main driver for that increase.
Last November, the company announced plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% over the next decade, with a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The utility plans to expand the amount of “renewable natural gas,” which comes from methane captured from landfills, wastewater treatment plants and dairy farms, offered to customers, according to its rate petition. Vermont Gas has 80 customers currently enrolled in that program. By 2030, the utility wants renewable gas to make up 20% of its supply.
And last week, the utility, Burlington Electric Department and UVM Medical Center announced that they were moving ahead with engineering and design work for the long-awaited district heating system in the Queen City. The plan is to capture waste heat at the McNeil Generating Plant, which would be sent via steam pipe to the medical center.
Vermont Gas also has been appointed by the state to do efficiency work for its customers. As part of its climate plan, the utility is looking to triple the number of homes it weatherizes and even find customers heating alternatives like cold-climate heat pumps with the Energy Co-op of Vermont. The funding for that work comes from the efficiency charge, which Vermont Gas has separately filed to increase by roughly 75 cents a homeowner in 2021.
Environmental advocacy group 350Vermont, which fought against the utility’s controversial Addison County pipeline, has expressed skepticism about the utility’s climate-friendly rebranding.
The utility is also seeking to raise rates due to a forecasted 2.7% increase in gas costs. The company can only profit off its assets and not the cost of gas itself, and files quarterly adjustments based on changes in gas cost.
Vermont Gas is also asking to make a $5.6 million withdrawal from a pool of ratepayer money called the System Expansion and Reliability Fund, or SERF, to offset what would otherwise be a higher base rate increase. The SERF was collected from customers to reduce the impact of the Addison County pipeline on rates.
