Delivery Charges

Customer Charge: The fixed monthly charge that recovers the cost of meter reading, equipment, maintenance, and customer services. The Customer Charge does not change when your usage of natural gas increases or decreases.

Distribution Charge: The cost of delivering natural gas through Unitil’s pipes to your home or business. It includes our operating and maintenance costs, investment in the pipe and other equipment to meet your needs. The Revenue Decoupling Adjustment Factor is included in the Distribution Charge.

Distribution Adjustment Charge: This charge recovers other operating and maintenance costs not reflected in the distribution charge including certain environmental costs, costs of low-income programs, energy efficiency programs, and other costs or credits. This charge is the sum of the Energy Efficiency Charge, Remediation Adjustment Clause Factor, Balancing Penalty Credit Factor, Interruptible Transportation Margin Credit, Pension/PBOP Adjustment Factor, Residential Assistance Adjustment Factor, Attorney General Consultant Expense Factor, Gas System Enhancement Adjustment Factor, Gas System Enhancement Reconciliation Adjustment Factor​.

Supplier Charges

Default Service Charge: This charge recovers the cost of acquiring gas for your use and having that gas shipped to Unitil’s gas distribution system. The following components make up the Default Service Charge: Gas Adjustment Factor, LPLNP Costs rate, Dispatch, Acquisition, and FERC Proceeding Costs rate, Production Related Overhead rate, Gas Supplier Refunds rate, Supply Related Bad Debt Expense rate, and Inventory Finance Charge rate. All Unitil customers have the option to purchase natural gas from a competitive supplier. If you do not choose another supplier, you will continue to receive your natural gas from Unitil’s Default Service.

Additional Gas Service Definitions

Attorney General Consultant Expense Factor: This charge recovers expenses associated with consultants or experts retained by the Attorney General to assist with cases before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities Commission.

Balancing Penalty Credit Factor: This rate component provides a mechanism to credit customers with balancing penalty revenues received by the Company.

CCF: Basic measurement of the gas you used. Natural gas is measured by volume. One CCF equals on hundred cubic feet of gas.

Discount Rate Adjustment: A revenue discount given to residential assistance customers enrolled in the Company’s discounted rate (Rate RD-2 and RD-4).

Dispatch, Acquisition, and FERC Proceeding Costs rate: This rate component recovers these costs associated with gas supply.

Energy Efficiency Charge: This charge provides funds to Unitil to provide energy efficiency programs to its customers.

Estimated Meter Reading: If we are unable to read your meter, we will estimate your reading based on the history of usage at that service address. Any necessary adjustments will be made after the next actual reading to insure you only pay for the energy you have used.

10% Farm Credit: Customers who qualify as person or corporations engaged in the business of agriculture or farming, as defined pursuant to section 1A of Chapter 128 of the General Laws, shall receive a credit of ten percent from the otherwise applicable rates. The credit shall be based on full Delivery Service rates plus Default Service Charges, if applicable. The credit will be recalculated as required to maintain the ten percent discount from these rates as in effect from time to time.

Gas Adjustment Factor: This factor recovers the cost of purchased gas including commodity, demand and transportation charges.

Gas Supplier Refunds rate: This rate provides a mechanism to credit customers refunds received by Unitil from suppliers of gas.

Gas System Enhancement Adjustment Factor: This factor recovers costs associated with the replacement or improvement of existing natural gas distribution infrastructure to improve public safety or infrastructure reliability.

Gas System Enhancement Reconciliation Adjustment Factor: This factor recovers the difference in the costs collected and the revenues billed under the Gas System Enhancement Adjustment Factor.

Interruptible Transportation Margin Credit: This rate component provide a mechanism to credit customers with profits on non-firm transportation, less any margin sharing allowed by the Department of Public Utilities.

Inventory Finance Charge rate: This rate component recovers the finance costs of gas in inventory.

LPLNG Costs rate (local propane and liquefied natural gas): This rate component recovers the local production capacity and storage costs.

Maximum Daily Demand therms (MDD): The therm demand delivered to the Customer during the gas day of maximum use.

Pension/PBOP Adjustment Factor: This charge recovers costs associated with pension and post-retirement benefits other than pensions (“PBOP”). This factor is adjusted annually to recover pension and PBOP costs and to reconcile these expense amounts included in the Company’s distribution rates with the total expenses.

Production Related Overhead rate: This rate component includes production related overhead costs.

Remediation Adjustment Clause Factor: This charge recovers certain environmental response costs.

Residential Assistance Adjustment Factor: This charge recovers the revenue discount given to residential assistance customers enrolled in the Company’s discounted rate (Rate RD-2 and RD-4), incremental costs directly related to the Company’s approved Arrearage Management Program, and includes any payments, for hardship protected accounts, made by Customers towards the amortized balance.

Revenue Decoupling Adjustment Factor: This rate component provides a mechanism to adjust rates for distribution service in order to reconcile actual distribution revenue per customer with the approved distribution target revenue per customer.

Supply Related Bad Debt Expense rate: This rate component recovers the costs associated with uncollected gas costs.

Sales Tax: A state tax of 6.25% applied to your charges for gas. The tax is collected by the Company and remitted to the state. Sales of gas for residential purposes are exempt. Sales of utilities are also exempt when sold to businesses with five or fewer employees and gross income of less than $1 million, or to manufacturing facilities that use at least 75 percent of their energy in manufacturing or heating the manufacturing facility.

Therm: Basic measurement of the heat content of the gas you used. The therm factor converts the volume of gas used from Ccf to therms. One therm equals 100,000 BTUs (British Thermal Units).

Terms of Payment

The charges for service are net, billed monthly and payable upon presentation of the bill. For business customers, interest charges will be added from the date of the original bill if current charges for electricity are not paid and received by the Company or its agents within twenty-five (25) days. Interest charges shall be calculated at an annual rate of interest which is the equivalent of the rate paid on two-year United States Treasury notes for the preceding 12 months ending December 31 of any year, plus 10 percent, i.e. 1000 basis points, in accordance with 220 CMR 26.00. The monthly interest charge is also added to accounts until all arrears have been paid.

Typical Rate Change Dates:

May 1 and November 1 - Distribution Charge, Distribution Adjustment Charge, Default Service Charge