Southwest Gas filed a general rate case application (A.19-08-015) with the California Public Utilities Commission on August 30, 2019, seeking a rate adjustment with the proposed rate adjustment to be effective on January 1, 2021.
The proposed rate adjustment provides a $12.8 million increase in California revenues for year 2021 in order to maintain a safe and reliable natural gas distribution system. Please see the chart for the requested adjustment in your jurisdiction.
| Jurisdiction | Proposed Adjustment |
| Southern California | $6.8 million |
| Northern California | $1.5 million |
| South Lake Tahoe | $4.5 million |
The following proposals have been made to minimize customer impact:
- Introducing more Conservation & Energy Efficiency programs to help customers conserve energy and save on their energy bills.
- Residential Equipment Direct-Install (RED)
- Solar Thermal Rebates
- Adjusting the basic service charge to better reflect customer-related costs and to assist in decreasing peak winter monthly bills.
- Reducing high bills by adding a Winter Off-Peak residential baseline season.
Southwest Gas is also proposing to make annual revenue adjustments of 2.75% for years 2022 through 2025 in each jurisdiction.
Additional Resources
Application
If the Commission approves Southwest Gas’ application, the typical monthly bills for residential customers would be:
Southern California Residential Customers
| Season | Number of Therms | $Increase/($Decrease) | Typical Monthly Bill |
| Summer (May-October) |
16 | $3.15 | $28.19 to $31.34 |
| Winter Off-Peak (March, April and November) |
39 | $5.56 | $60.69 to $66.25 |
| Winter (December-February) |
72 | $8.29 | $110.90 to $119.19 |
Northern California Residential Customers
| Season | Number of Therms | $Increase/($Decrease) | Typical Monthly Bill |
| Summer (June-October) |
24 | $0.05 | $37.07 to $37.12 |
| Winter Off-Peak (April, May and November) |
66 | ($0.70) | $92.02 to $91.33 |
| Winter (December-March) |
124 | ($4.47) | $173.00 to $168.53 |
South Lake Tahoe Residential Customers
| Season | Number of Therms | $Increase/($Decrease) | Typical Monthly Bill |
| Summer (June-October) |
26 | $7.68 | $30.25 to $37.93 |
| Winter Off-Peak (April, May and November) |
70 | $20.53 | $71.57 to $92.09 |
| Winter (December-March) |
115 | $31.57 | $116.90 to $148.46 |
Southwest Gas has included a risk-informed decision-making process in this general rate case application. This process evaluated and identified several risks, and as a result Southwest Gas is proposing three risk-based infrastructure programs to mitigate the risks:
Meter Protection Program
Includes various safety options that are aimed at enhancing the protection of existing meters in areas which receive heavy snow, and do not currently have an adequate form of meter protection against snow load. The four proposed options include:
- Retrofitting meter sheds for current customers without such protection
- Upgrading certain meter sets acquired by Southwest Gas with more robust piping
- Evaluating and installing an Excess Flow Valve on certain service lines
- Upgrading the meter encoder receiver transmitter (ERT) device to allow for daily meter usage monitoring
Customer-Owned Yard Line (COYL) Program
A COYL is the primary customer-owned and maintained gas piping that is between the gas meter and the customer’s house/building. Through the COYL Program, Southwest Gas proposes to replace all known COYLs in its California jurisdictions by offering customers the option to relocate their meters and replace the COYL with facilities that are owned and maintained by Southwest Gas. The COYL Program is subdivided into two COYL categories — non-school COYLs and school COYLs.
Targeted Pipe Replacement Program (Southern California only)
This program will focus on the replacement of three primary classifications of vintage pipelines:
- Pre-1961 vintage distribution steel pipelines
- Pre-1961 vintage distribution high-pressure steel pipelines
- Driscopipe™ 7000 distribution plastic pipelines
The revenue requirement associated with the three risk-based programs are proposed to be recovered through the Infrastructure Reliability and Replacement Adjustment Mechanism (IRRAM) surcharge. The IRRAM surcharges are proposed to go into effect on January 1, 2021.
| Jurisdiction | IRRAM Surcharge |
| Southern California | $0.03888 |
| Northern California | $0.01249 |
| South Lake Tahoe | $0.02206 |
