Omaha – A complaint filed with state regulators alleges Colorado-based natural-gas provider SourceGas may have overcharged its Nebraska customers by $1.1 million over the past year when its predecessor company increased rates.
Lakewood-based SourceGas says its rates were proper and complied with terms of a rate settlement the Nebraska Public Service Commission approved last December.
The complaint was filed with the commission by its public advocate, attorney Roger Cox.
A hearing is scheduled Oct. 30. If the commission agrees with Cox, SourceGas customers could receive a refund.
SourceGas serves 94,000 residential customers in Nebraska.
The complaint accuses the company of mishandling rate changes last September and last January.
SourceGas’s customers saw their rates increase last September on an interim basis after the company asked to increase its rates enough to generate $11.05 million more a year.
Natural-gas rates were adjusted again in January after the company and the commission settled on an $8.25 million annual increase.
SourceGas applied those new rates to all bills issued after Sept. 1 and Jan. 1 even if the billing cycle included several days of the previous month.
That was the source of overcharging Cox complains about.
But SourceGas’s attorney Stephen Bruckner said the company simply charged the rates that were in effect when bills were issued just as the rate settlement dictated.
“There has been no overcollection,” Bruckner said.
SourceGas also distributes natural gas in Colorado, Wyoming and Mexico.
The company was created in May to take over for Kinder Morgan Inc., which sold its retail distribution operations to GE Energy Financial Services of Stamford, Conn., and Alinda Investments L.L.C. of New York.
