
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 30, 1995                   TAG: 9509300012
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GAS USERS TO GET REFUND

The State Corporation Commission has refused roughly half of a rate increase sought by Roanoke Gas Co. The ruling means the utility's current rates will be lowered, because higher prices were imposed on an interim basis last November.

Customers will get a refund for what they have overpaid.

The SCC announced Friday that it has approved an increase in Roanoke Gas' annual operating revenue of $655,000 rather than the $1.28 million the company originally requested June 15, 1994. The company later agreed to scale back the request to about $800,000.

When the company imposed the full rate hike on an interim basis Nov.13, average residential customers using 8,500 cubic feet of gas a month saw their monthly bills increase by $1.64. The SCC's order reduces that increase by about 80 cents.

The surplus collected under the interim rates will be refunded to customers with interest. For most, that will come in the form of a credit on their next bills, the SCC said.

The refund order will not cause the company any problems, because the company had prepared for it, said Roger Baumgardner, Roanoke Gas vice president, secretary and treasurer.

In determining what the new gas rates should be, the SCC set 11.7 percent as the rate of return that Roanoke Gas shareholders should earn on their investment in the company.

Baumgardner said the utility was disappointed that the SCC had decided not to allow it to pass along to its gas customers all of the cost of the company's contributions to charities. The SCC said Roanoke Gas stockholders should bear half of the cost of the contributions, which last year amounted to $64,000, because the company gets the credit for making the contributions and because stockholders determine how much and to whom charity is given.

"We were under the impression the SCC would allow full recovery" of the costs, he said, adding that it was "hard to say" if the decision will have any impact on the company's charitable donations.

Roanoke Gas serves approximately 41,000 customers in Roanoke, Salem and Vinton and the counties of Botetourt, Montgomery and Roanoke.

by CNB