Choosing
Your Natural Gas Supplier
Pennsylvania Residents
Gas
Competition Brings Customer
Choices
As the natural gas industry has gradually undergone the process of deregulation,
the behind-the-scenes transactions involved in bringing gas from the producing
regions to a consumer’s
home or business have been unbundled. This involves separating the sale of
the gas itself (sales service) from the cost for its local delivery to our
customers (transportation service).
Energy
Choices for Residential Customers
Since the early 1980s, gas utilities in Pennsylvania have been providing transportation
service for larger, nonresidential customers who contracted with a marketer
to secure gas supplies. More recently, the state governments have decided to
bring the benefits of energy choice to small businesses and residential customers,
so non-utility suppliers have begun to market their services to these customers.
Click
here to take the Choice Quiz.
Cost Components of Your Gas Bill
To understand the
realistic potential for cost-savings
by purchasing gas supplies
from a non-utility supplier rather than National
Fuel, one needs to remember the primary components
of our bill.
Over half of our gas bill reflects the cost
of the gas itself. This includes both the
cost of gas at the wellhead, and the transmission
cost to move it
to National Fuel’s service area. This figure is variable, fluctuating
every month, sometimes quite dramatically, due to the impact of supply and
demand on the market price of natural gas. Gas utilities are required to purchase
the lowest priced gas available and must sell the gas to our customers on a
dollar-for-dollar basis—without any mark-up or profit. This is the portion
of the bill that will be affected if a customer selects another supplier.
The remaining portion of the gas bill represents
National Fuel’s cost
to provide service to all its customers. This includes operating costs, taxes,
interest on capital borrowed for pipeline system maintenance and construction,
and utility earnings. This will remain relatively constant in the new unbundled
environment because, even if a customer selects another gas supplier, the gas
will still be delivered to the home or business through National Fuel’s
system. Therefore, these customers will pay a transportation charge to National
Fuel that is set by the state’s utility commission.
Can You Save Money?
Any savings on the gas cost portion
of a customer's bill could be realized in two
primary ways: if a marketer can purchase gas
at a lower wellhead price than National Fuel
or through the avoidance of certain taxes.
What is a Marketer?
A marketer is an entity, usually a
corporation, that buys or brokers gas for resale
to retail
customers. It is not a public utility, and
its rates are not regulated. Marketers arrange
to
have gas delivered to National Fuel’s system
and transported directly to your home or business.
All marketers providing service on National Fuel’s
system are required to meet strict financial
fitness requirements to assure reliable service.
Working with Our Community
National Fuel is working together
with the communities in our service territory
to ensure
that during this time of change, choice and
occasional confusion, local homeowners and
businesses will
continue to find that natural gas is still
their best energy value.
Gas
Restructuring Filing
As
part of the Natural Gas Choice
and Competition Act recently
signed into law by the Governor,
each natural gas utility in the
commonwealth was required to
submit a restructuring plan to
the Pennsylvania Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) by November
1, 1999. The filings are intended
to show how the utility companies
will allow customers to access
competitive gas supplies sold
by PUC-licensed natural gas suppliers.
National Fuel's plan to address supplier choice and other requirements of the
law was filed October 1, 1999. Under the plan, National Fuel's customers
are able to choose their own natural gas supplier, as they have since the
company's system-wide choice plan became effective on March 4, 1999. The restructuring
filing was designed to bring the company's existing choice program into
compliance with the new law.
The restructuring filing will open up in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Click on the following link to proceed: Natural
Gas Choice and Competition Act Filing Docket No. R-00994785
Important Notice: Electronic
versions of official documents may differ from
the hard copy version available from National
Fuel. Information provided on this Web site is
intended to provide immediate access to the substance
of documents; however, appendices may be omitted
from the text. Due to software differences, footnotes
may be omitted from the text; document words
and lines spacing, text position and page numbers
may differ from the hard copy version. Although
results may vary depending on your software package,
it is recommended that downloading and printing
be performed. To obtain documents in hard copy,
please contact R. M. Friedrich-Alf by telephone
at (716) 857-7059 or by E-mail at FriedrichR@natfuel.com.
Approved
Gas Suppliers
Please
click on one of the links
below to find a listing of approved
suppliers by category:
Listing
of All Licensed Natural
Gas Suppliers
Approved
Small Aggregation Transportation
Customer ("SATC") Suppliers
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