The Town, along with 181 other Mid-Texas cities served by Atmos Energy Corporation, Mid-Tex Division (“Atmos Mid-Tex” or “Company”), is a member of the Atmos Cities Steering Committee (“ACSC”). In 2007, ACSC and Atmos Mid-Tex settled a rate application filed by the Company pursuant to Section 104.301 of the Texas Utilities Code for an interim rate adjustment commonly referred to as a GRIP filing (arising out of the Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program legislation). That settlement created a substitute rate review process, referred to as Rate Review Mechanism (RRM), as a substitute for future filings under the GRIP statute.
On or about April 1, 2022, the Company filed a rate request pursuant to the RRM Tariff adopted by ACSC members. The Company claimed that its cost-of-service in a test year ending December 31, 2021, entitled it to additional system-wide revenues of $141.3 million. Application of the standards set forth in ACSC's RRM Tariff reduces the Company's request to $115 million, $83.26 million of which would be applicable to ACSC members. ACSC's consultants concluded that the system-wide deficiency under the RRM regime should be $95.8 million instead of the claimed $141.3 million.
The ACSC Executive Committee recommends a settlement at $115 million. The Effective Date for new rates is October 1, 2022. ACSC members should take action approving the Resolution/Ordinance before September 30, 2022.
The impact of the settlement on average residential rates is an increase of $4.60 on a monthly basis, or 6.7 percent. The increase for average commercial usage will be $14.34 or 4.3 percent. Atmos provided bill impact comparisons containing these figures.
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