MORGANTOWN – Hope Gas potentially affected by its proposal to convert up to 629 farm-tap customers to propane or electric continue voicing their opposition, with 57 letters of protest on file with the Public Service Commission on Monday.
Hope Gas, meanwhile, provided some answers to some questions submitted to it by the PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division.
One couple wrote to the PSC that their house has had unlimited free gas for more than 45 years. They are retired. “We depend on this free gas in order to be able to live in our house. It would be an unbearable hardship for us to lose this benefit. Our heat and all of our appliances run on free gas.”
They noted that their neighbors, who don’t get free gas, have received letters from the PSC about the case but they haven’t – though they would be affected by the PSC’s decision. “It is almost wintertime and the thought of not being able to afford to heat our home is causing us tremendous stress.”
Customer uncertainty about losing free gas is a constant theme among the letters.
PSC’s CAD asked Hope, “Please provide the estimated customer bill impacts caused by switching customers from natural gas to propane service.”
In response, Hope said, “Hope Gas will serve the affected farm tap customers under its RS (residentia) rate schedule. Propane costs will be included in Hope Gas’ annual purchased gas cost adjustment (PGA) filing. Hope Gas customers paying Hope Gas’ PGA rates may see a small impact from propane supply cost being included in the PGA filing.” The PGA costs are spread among all ratepayers in their monthly bills.
Hope Gas Senior Vice President of Gas Supply and Development Jeff Nehr recently said in a MetroNews Talkline radio broadcast, “Folks that receive gas as a result of drillers and get their gas for free will not be impacted. Those customers will move with the pipeline to a producer.”
Some other customer comments.
One said, “We are not interested in changing our household appliances and heat source to propane or electric. The natural gas has been very dependable. It is also a more affordable fuel for us not so wealthy people. We would also have to call, call, call to have propane delivered. If winters become bad again, the delivery truck would not be able to deliver up our hill.”
Another said, “When my parents bought our farm it included a lease with gas rights that stated limited free gas. This in itself made the value of property increase and it would be valuable for future generations. This lease must be followed. We strongly disagree with any conversion. Not only would it be unnecessary, but inconvenient. All heating systems, appliances, renovations, etc., would be required.”
Another customer, a church, is not on free gas but also objects. They dug their own line. “All of the work met the company’s very strict regulations, and we have never had any issues with our service or had to call the company for assistance.
“We pay for our gas, and if Hope cuts off what they call farm taps to this well, there will be no way to sell this gas,” they said. “And we certainly will not give a right-of-way to a new transmission line if we can’t hook on.” The note that the church’s old gas-fired boiler would have to be replaced, and they can’t afford it. “We feel this proposal is very unnecessary as Hope does almost nothing to maintain our service. This move might make sense to me if I wasn’t paying Hope and was on free gas.”
Hope Gas is proposing to abandon in place or transfer to other companies certain gathering pipelines that it previously acquired from Equitrans and Dominion Gathering and Processing. Hope bought about 3,000 miles of pipeline, it said, with about 14,800 farm-tap customers.
Hope said some of those lines are no longer necessary or useful, and that providing safe, reliable, economic service to the farm-tap customers along those lines is in jeopardy because existing service “is either unsafe, unreliable, uneconomical, or any combination of the three.”
It wants to switch 479 farm-tap customers along those gathering system pipelines along with 150 farm-tap customers served off pipelines owned by Diversified and other companies to propane. The affected customers live in 22 counties, including Monongalia, Marion, Harrison and Wetzel.
Hope proposes to convert those customers to propane at its own expense, at about $10,000 per customer plus $2,000 for propane storage and house lines. Or, if the customer wishes, Hope would convert them to electric service provided by a local electric utility – the switch achieved also at Hope’s expense.
Regarding the 150 customers on Diversified and other third-party lines, Hope told CAD in answer to a question, “Hope Gas is not proposing to convert all the customers connected to these pipelines. Hope Gas has not received any request from the pipeline operators to convert, abandon or accept transfer of pipelines associated with serving Hope Gas Farm Tap Customers. Hope Gas is proposing that we have the ability to convert up to 150 customers in the future, if and only if, the pipeline operator cannot reliably or safely serve, supply falls below customer requirements, or pipeline operator is faced with excessive costs to replace or repair the pipeline, forcing Hope Gas to assume ownership of obsolete facilities.”
CAD asked Hope to quantify the annual operations and maintenance expenses associated with providing propane service to the affected customers.
Hope said it hasn’t solicited bids for propane service because it hasn’t received approval to provide the propane service. “Hope Gas will capitalize the propane tank versus leasing. Hope Gas will look to capitalize other service requirement tools and trucks to minimize propane operations and maintenance. Hope Gas assumes that the EIA [Energy Information Administration] retail propane costs includes propane delivery to the customer. “
CAD also asked Hope how many free gas customers are connected to or otherwise receive gas supplies which are transported through any of the pipelines in question. Hope referred CAD to a spreadsheet it provided to the PSC; the spreadsheet is not accessible in the public case filings.
The PSC will hold an evidentiary hearing in the case on Dec. 9 at its Charleston headquarters.
