Community Natural Gas Co. provides service in 10 southern Indiana counties.
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 gas costs and base rates.
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.
Community Natural Gas Co. files gas cost adjustment requests every three months. Its most recent GCA (Cause No. 37488 GCA-162) received approval in October 2024.
Base Rates
Base rates cover "non-gas" costs for a utility, including operational, maintenance, and capital costs. A natural gas utility is allowed to earn a return on this portion of the bill.
The IURC approved base rates in October 2022.
In its initial filings on Mar. 4, 2022, Community Natural Gas Co. requested a 25.9 percent rate increase in Cause No. 45690. In June, 2022 The OUCC and Community Natural Gas reached a settlement agreement, which limited the increase to 16 percent. The final order issued by the IURC in October 2022 approved the settlement agreement.
All publicly filed documents, including settlement testimony, are available through the IURC's electronic document system.
Infrastructure Improvement Plan
In a separate case, Community Natural Gas Company received approval of a long-term infrastructure improvement plan in 2016 (Cause No. 44710). The OUCC filed testimony recommending approval.
Additional Resources
10-31-2024