MORGANTOWN – The Public Service Commission has set dates for testimony and evidentiary hearings for two Hope Gas cases.
One is for its annual Pipeline Replacement and Expansion Program – PREP – rate-hike proposal. Hope filed the case May 29.
PREP program charges are authorized in state code for “cost recovery of projects to replace, upgrade and expand natural gas utility infrastructure that are deemed to be just and reasonable and in the public interest.” Hope’s PREP rates cover two programs: its General Program that focuses on capital investment projects on Hope’s core distribution system facilities; and its Field/Gathering Program that focuses on capital investment projects on Hope’s field/gathering pipelines and facilities.
Hope’s proposed new rates would increase the average residential customer bill by $4.37 (4.07%). It proposes to have the new rates take effect Nov. 1.
It proposes to invest $81,797,415 in its General Program this year and $81,037,752 in 2027. For the Field/Gathering Program, the proposed investments are $30,354,412 and $34 million, respectively.
The PSC has set Aug. 18 and Sept. 2 for testimony, and Sept. 23 for the evidentiary hearing.
The other case is its Red Lines case.
Hope originally proposed in August 2024 to abandon about 1,069 miles of lines it termed Red Lines – acquired from Equitrans and Dominion Gathering – because they 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.
The lines spanned 22 counties – including Monongalia and Marion – and Hope proposed to convert about 479 farm-tap customers to propane or electricity. The case was put on hold for a while. On April 24, Hope filed a new case with a more narrow approach to the problem.
Hope’s new proposal tackles the issue in phases. It reminds the PSC that the lines require high and increasing operation and maintenance expenses and see significant lost or unaccounted for gas, and would require significant capital expense to mitigate the problems.
It has divided the Red Lines into four categories: (1) no producers or farm taps, 34 miles; (2) one producer per line and no farm taps, 62 miles; (3) multiple producers and no farm taps, 335 miles; (4) multiple producers and at least one farm tap customer, 704 miles; for a total of 1,135 miles.
In its new proposal, Hope is asking the PSC permission to take the Category 1 lines – 34 miles – out of service. It estimates that cutting and capping each line would cost from $10,000-$25,000, and it would seek to recover the costs through its annual PREP case (described above).
Hope would then submit subsequent petitions at later dates to take other categories out of service “pursuant to reasonable and well defined proposed timelines and procedures in those petitions.”
Hope said it knows of 26 free-gas users along the Category 1 lines, but cannot say if there are others. “However, since there are no known producer pipelines or wells connected to these Category 1 Red Lines, it is difficult to discern why any free gas users remain connected to the subject pipelines and receiving gas from Hope.”
For this case, the PSC has set Aug. 7, Aug. 24 and Sept. 3 for testimony, and Sept. 10 for the evidentiary hearing. Hope has requested an order in this case by Nov. 30.
