Vicksburg to raise natural gas rate after years of under-collection

Vicksburg residents will soon see an increase in their natural gas bills as the city adjusts a rate mechanism that officials say hasn’t been properly updated in more than a decade.

The purchase gas adjustment, which had remained at zero in recent years, will now increase by $5.05 per thousand cubic feet of gas. Customers will continue to pay the base rate of $9.45 per thousand cubic feet, but the new PGA will appear as a separate line on utility bills.

City of Vicksburg Director of Accounting Doug Whittington said the change restores the long-dormant purchase gas adjustment (PGA) — a fluctuating charge tied to the actual cost of natural gas and transportation — to help the city’s gas system recover from years of under-collection.

“The increase allows the city to stop losing money and start building back up our cash reserve,” Whittington said. “That reserve should be no less than two or three million dollars because CenterPoint Energy wants to know that we can pay a $750,000 bill in the middle of winter.”

Whittington said the average residential customer can expect to pay about $200 more per year, depending on their gas usage.

The adjustment, he explained, is not a new fee but a reinstatement of a standard cost-balancing measure that should have been reviewed and updated regularly.