State regulators have approved a base rate increase for PGW that is much lower than what the city-owned gas utility requested.

KYW’s Tony Romeo reports the Public Utility Commission has granted PGW a base rate increase of $16 million dollars, a bit more than a third of what the company requested. Still, PGW spokesman Cameron Kline says the utility is “comfortable” with the ruling. The PUC says it will mean an increase of almost 3-percent for the average PGW customer. But since the cost of natural gas has gone down, Kline says the average customer will experience a net decrease of more than 2-percent compared to this time last year:

“Because of the cost of gas, and that’s also because we worked very, very hard to make sure that the gas we buy – which is the largest portion of the bill – is done is economical as possible.”

PGW has also agreed not to seek another base rate hike for two years.