Monthly natural gas bills will be a fair bit lower for SaskEnergy customers starting next month.

The provincial government approved a commodity rate decrease of 24.5 per cent as well as a delivery service rate increase of 5 per cent the crown corporation applied for back in June.

CEO and President of SaskEnergy explained the readjustment will be effective for October 1st as they'd asked for in the application. 

"It's actually a good news story for the customers because this decrease is moving our commodity costs from $4.20 per gigajoules to $3.20 per gigajoules. So, the combined rate adjustment for residential customers, they're going to see an overall bill decrease of 7.8%."

This translates $6.52 per month for the average residential customer.

Guillet explained that the natural gas company is able to manage fluctuating markets by using its hedging program, which locks in natural gas prices, and shields customers from the extremes of market volatility.

Since the commodity rate is set on a cost-recovery basis, no profit is earned, or loss incurred by SaskEnergy. As the commodity costs have gone down for them, they can pass that decrease along to customers. 

The increase in delivery service rate allows the company to address some of the inflationary pressures they've been managing such as rising fuel costs, interest rates, and operating expenses.

"We're very conscious in looking at that affordability piece, and that's why we try to maintain those parts and be able to do those types of adjustments," Guillet added. "Really wanted to make sure we got that overall bill decrease passed as quickly as we can, and that's why it will be coming in on October 1st."

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, Swift Current Online encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the Swift Current Online app.