SCEG gas customers will see bills drop 17 %

SCE&G gas customers will see their bills drop about 17.2 per-cent starting in November, a state utility agency said today.

The decline for a customer using 100 therms of gas will total $28.36 savings compared to the November 2007 bill, said Dukes Scott, executive director of the Office of Regulatory Staff.

“The drop in the cost of gas is really the driving force behind this reduction,” Scott said. The savings is the product of two agreements his staff reached with the utility, which is the principal subsidiary of Columbia-based SCANA Corp.

The first agreement was reached in October 2006. It re-quired monthly instead of annual adjustments to the company’s pass-through cost of natural gas, Scott said.

The second agreement was reached in September after Scott’s agency recommended a 21 percent reduction in SCE&G’s request to raise gas rates.

That agreement proposal is pending before the state Public Service Commission.