Nearly $2 per month is how much Kyle residents stand to save on their utility bills after city leaders April 17 approved a gas utility rate decrease.
The dip comes after Kyle city officials challenged a proposed rate increase by CenterPoint Energy Resources late last year.
In November 2017, CenterPoint filed a statement of intent with both the City of Kyle and the Texas Railroad Commission to increase its system-wide annual revenue requirement by about $490,000, and recover about $676,000 it lost during Hurricane Harvey through a 12-month surcharge, said city chief of staff Jerry Hendrix.
The move would have resulted in a rate increase of 2.8 percent, or $1.13 more a month on average, for the nearly 8,000 Kyle residents who rely on CenterPoint services, Hendrix said.
Herrera Law & Associates, a firm that specializes in utility law, reviewed CenterPoint’s application and filed a rate case in opposition.
Their review suggested that Centerpoint should instead decrease its rates by about $5 million, based a variety of factors, including the effect of the reduction in the corporate federal income tax rate from the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017.
To avoid litigation, the two parties compromised on a deal that will decrease CenterPoint’s current revenue by $3 million.
The decrease is $3.5 million less than CenterPoint’s original proposition, according to city documents. The settlement will save the average resident $1.65 per month, Hendrix said.
