Released on October 31, 2006
Government has approved a natural gas rate increase of 5.4 per cent for SaskEnergy customers, effective November 1. The increase was recommended by the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel in its report to government."The increase will move the commodity rate to $7.17 per Gigajoule (GJ), which will mean an increase of about $4 a month for the average residential customer," Crown Investments Corporation Minister Maynard Sonntag said.
In its application to the Rate Review Panel, SaskEnergy originally asked for a price of $7.56 per GJ. It revised its application to $7.17 on October 11 to reflect lower forward prices for this winter on the open market, where price is determined by supply and demand. The rate increase is necessary to cover those costs, but is not revenue-generating for the corporation. It is simply a flow-through cost to customers.
"It's important to note that, even with the increase, the average residential customer will actually be paying about $60 less this winter than last winter," Sonntag said. "As you will recall, we introduced the Saskatchewan Energy Share last year to shield SaskEnergy customers from spiking natural gas prices. We capped SaskEnergy's rate at $7.95 per GJ from November 2005 through March 2006, so this winter's price is much lower."
Sonntag thanked the panel members for their work on this rate review. He also thanked everyone who shared their views with the panel through public meetings, emails, letters and phone calls.
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For More Information, Contact:
| Karen Schmidt Crown Investments Corporation Regina Phone: 306-787-5889 Email: kschmidt@cicorp.sk.ca |