Peoples Gas Company has filed a rate increase request with the Public Utility Commission, seeking another $163 million in annual revenue, increasing the average customer’s monthly bill by more than sixteen dollars. The PUC review of the request is expected to take about nine months.
If approved, the new rates would increase the average residential monthly bill from $122.20 to $138.23, a 13.1 percent hike that would likely begin in December, just as the winter heating season is gearing up. Commercial rates would rise 15.7 percent and industrial users would pay 11.6 percent more.
The last Peoples Gas increase went into effect in September of 2024, after the company had requested 21 percent but was granted 12 percent.
Peoples already passes the cost of gas itself on to its customers, with quarterly adjustments based on the market value of the gas. The new rate increase would be for the other part of the bill, which pays for the delivery of the gas, maintenance of the system, pipeline replacement, and other expenses.
In its request, Peoples claims that without the increase, investors would make only a 7.14 percent return, which would cause them to invest their money elsewhere. That, it asserts, would impact its ability to continue to improve its gas infrastructure.” Since Peoples began its pipeline replacement program in 2013, it has put in more than 2,000 miles of new gas lines, including over 200 miles last year.
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