Fountaintown Gas Co. Rates
Fountaintown Gas Co. provides service in 5 counties (Decatur, Hancock, Henry, Rush, and Shelby).
To compare average residential billing amounts for regulated natural gas utilities, see the IURC's monthly residential surveys.
Key components in natural gas bills include base rates and gas costs.
Base Rates
Base rates cover "non-gas" costs for a utility, including operational, maintenance, and capital costs. A base rate case filed in November 2022 is pending before the IURC.
The IURC approved new rates for Fountaintown Gas Co. in a May 3, 2023 order.
The OUCC filed its report and recommendations on Mar. 2, 2023, and issued a Dec. 20, 2022 news release to invite consumer comments.
All publicly filed documents in the rate case (Cause No. 45802-U) are available on the Commission's website.
The utility requested the increase through the state's Small Utility Filing Procedure, which is aimed at reducing rate case expenses while not reducing the standard of review by the OUCC and IURC.
Gas Costs
Natural gas utilities buy gas for their customers in a competitive wholesale market. Indiana law allows utilities to adjust rates periodically to recover changes in those costs, which can go up or down. These costs comprise a significant portion of a residential bill and are recovered through the Gas Cost Adjustment (GCA) process.
- Utilities may recover wholesale gas costs on a dollar-for-dollar basis but may not profit on them.
- Before adjusting rates to reflect the costs, a utility must demonstrate that it has shopped prudently in the competitive market.
- Each GCA filing requires OUCC review and IURC approval.
Fountaintown Gas Company files gas cost adjustment requests every three months. Its most recent GCA (Cause No. 37913 GCA-144) received approval in March 2024.
Additional Resources
4-5-2024