Groveport Messenger - April 18th, 2021

PAGE 12 - GROVEPORT MESSENGER - April 18, 2021
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Update on Madison Township
residents’ natural gas bills
By Linda Dillman
Staff Writer
If you are a Madison Township resident,
you might have received an unwelcome
surprise in a recent natural gas utility bill.
According to the township’s utility advisor,
Trebel, LLC, and its representative
Scott Belcastro, natural gas supplier
Volunteer Energy services took steps to
charge customers for a purported increase
in Volunteer’s costs due to two separate
events.
“Trebel believes Volunteer’s actions to
increase your costs have caused Volunteer
to be unjustly compensated by customers
and requires your community to take
action on behalf of its residents” wrote
Belcastro in a letter to Volunteer Energy
Services on the township’s behalf.
The two events Belcastro said allegedly
allowed Volunteer to pass through additional
costs over and above a contractual
fixed-price adder was a pipeline request by
Columbia Gas Transmission (TCO) to
increase rates for storage and transmission
and the cold winter weather event in
Texas.
“TCO filed a rate case with the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission and implemented
new rates, subject to refund, to
suppliers starting Feb. 1, 2021, which
would significantly increase the cost of
storage and transmission on the TCO
pipeline,” wrote Belcastro.
According to Belcastro, while the action
affected suppliers in February, the federal
rate case application and new rates proposed
by Columbia Gas have not yet been
approved by the regulatory commission.
The current Columbia Gas charge is
NYMEX plus $0.107 per cubic foot.
“To compensate Volunteer for TCO’s
increased Volunteer increased your price of
natural gas by adding an additional charge
of $0.0715 per ccf to the previously charged
NYMEX plus fixed-price adder, beginning
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PLEASE BE BRIEF AND TO THE
Feb. 1,” wrote Belcastro. “Volunteer
appears to be claiming that a regulatory
event occurred to allow it to take action.”
With the additional charge, the cost to
customers jumps in April to NYMEX plus
$0.170 per ccf.
Trebel alleges Volunteer is violating the
township contract in that no regulatory
event has yet occurred to allow the company
to pass through the rate increases and
the community and that Trebel LLC was
not notified of the increase prior to
Volunteer assessing the charges.
The shutdown of energy services in
Texas due to extreme weather also had a
purported impact on the cost of providing
gas to Madison Township customers.
“Volunteer alleges that due to this cold
weather event and shut down that they
could not have foreseen, they were required
to purchase additional natural gas in the
market at extremely high prices,” said
Belcastro. “As a result, Volunteer
increased your price of natural gas by
adding an additional charge of $0.09 per
ccf…beginning March 1. Volunteer has
stated that it only intends to assess this
additional charge on customers’ March
bills.”
A special Madison Township trustee
meeting was held on April 6 by Trebel LLC
to discuss the increases.
During his presentation to the township,
Belcastro said, “Volunteer has since
decided to refund back to residents this
summer the one-time charge ($13-$15) that
it collected from residents on March bills.”
Madison Township Administrator
Susan Brobst said the “cold-weather” event
fee refund will be in the form of a check and
that the township is waiting on a timeline
confirmation for the refund.
“The remaining fee charged is still being
discussed,” said Brobst, who previously
said the township believes the rate increases
are unfair and not permitted by the contract.
POINT. The Messenger reserves the right
to edit or refuse publication of any letter for
any reason. Opinions expressed in the letters
are not necessarily the views of the
Messenger. Mail letters to: Southeast
Messenger, 3500 Sullivant Avenue,
Columbus, OH 43204; or by email to southeast@columbusmessenger.com.
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Rick Palsgrove ...................................Groveport Editor
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