October 25, 2019 10:45 a.m. 
After many years of rate decreases related to wholesale natural gas costs, the Oregon Public Utility Commission has approved a rate increase for natural gas customers of three regulated utilities – Avista Utilities, Cascade Natural Gas Company and NW Natural.
Avista has parts of southern Oregon in its service area, including areas in Douglas County.
A release from the Commission, said in part, rates will increase because the cost of the natural gas supply spiked over the last year due to a pipeline explosion last winter, which impacted regional gas supply and caused prices to increase. The PUC approves adjustments to each company’s rates annually to reflect changes in the actual cost of wholesale priced natural gas, known as the Purchased Gas Adjustment. The release says this allows companies to pass through their actual cost of purchasing gas to customers without a markup on the price. Since 2009, Oregon residents have benefitted from a decrease in natural gas rates due to the PGA, except for 2013 and 2014.
For Avista, the adjusted rates also reflect the result of a general rate case filed with the PUC seeking additional revenues to cover non-gas costs. The adjustment will not appear in customer bills until January 15, 2020.
The PUC approved an increase of 10 percent for Avista customers for the PGA filing when compared to 2018 company gross revenues. Additionally, the PUC recently approved a 2.5 percent increase for non-gas costs in a general rate proceeding. That adjustment will be effective January 15, 2020.
For residential customers the combined result of those two decisions is an increase to customer rates of 15.2 percent for a typical customer using an average of 46 therms per month. That means the charge would go from $48.11 to $55.41.
A typical commercial customer will see an increase of 11.8 percent while industrial customers should expect an increase of 16.4 percent.