The price of natural gas is dropping for residential customers in Manitoba.
The Public Utilities Board (PUB) has approved the application by Centra Gas Manitoba to decrease the gas commodity rate. The rate will drop from about 18.78 cents per cubic metre to 14.64 cents per cubic metre.
The PUB has also approved an increase to the Commodity Cost Balancing Deferral rate rider from .17 cents per cubic metre to .67 cents per cubic metre.
The changes take effect May 1st of this year. As a result, the annual bill for a typical residential customer is expected to decrease by $81 per year, or about 9.5 per cent.
Gas commodity rates for customers that have signed fixed-term fixed-price contracts, with either Centra or a private broker, are not affected.
Gas commodity is sold on a cost recovery basis, meaning that Centra charges customers only what Centra pays for gas commodity and does not make a profit on its sale. The current gas commodity rate decrease is the result of decreases in the North American natural gas market prices.