Saskatchewan residents could be seeing a bit of a break on their SaskEnergy bills starting next month. The provincial government has approved a rate decrease request from SaskEnergy.
The decrease, which will take effect on October 1st, will see the commodity rate for natural gas go from $4.20 per gigajoule to $3.20 per gigajoule, a 24.5 percent decrease. There will be a slight increase, though, in the delivery service rate, as it will be increasing by five percent.
The combined adjustment for the rates will see an overall bill decrease of eight percent. This works out to roughly $6.52 in savings per month for the average residential customer, according to SaskEnergy.
"Affordability is front and centre in all utility rate decisions in Saskatchewan," Minister Responsible for SaskEnergy Dustin Duncan said in a written statement. "SaskEnergy has done solid work on managing fluctuating markets by using its hedging program to lock in natural gas at beneficial prices. That hedging strategy provides price stability and shields customers from the extremes of market volatility."
The rate decrease was originally submitted to the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel in June. The panel made the recommendation to the provincial government to approve the decrease, which was announced Thursday morning.
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