Spire Missouri, Inc. (Spire Missouri) natural gas customers will see rates change under a company filing that will take effect on April 1, 2021.

The Missouri Public Service Commission says the change reflects a change in the Weather Normalization Adjustment Rider (WNAR) which authorizes rate adjustments based on weather variations. The purpose of the WNAR tariff is to adjust revenues, either positive or negative, for differences between actual heating degree days and normal heating degree days. The rate change in this filing generally reflects warmer than normal weather in the Spire East and Spire West districts.

Under tariffs filed by the natural gas company, a Spire West Missouri residential customer will see a line item increase of approximately $0.69 a month in their bill.

As part of the PSC Staff (Staff) recommendation in this case, Staff filed a motion seeking to have the Commission open a separate case as Staff indicated it had identified a WNAR billing error. Staff stated that during its investigation it found Spire allegedly had not incorporated the WNAR rate reflected in its tariffs, effective October 1, 2020, to the present, in its billing system until February 22, 2021. Staff alleged Spire’s failure to bill the tariffed rate from October 1, 2020 to February 22, 2021, was a violation of Spire’s currently effective tariff.

Staff states that the WNAR rates now proposed in this case are not impacted by Spire’s alleged failure to bill its customers the appropriate rate in previous months. The reconciliation period for those months will not be addressed until Spire’s September 2021 filing.

The Commission has granted Staff’s motion to open a case (GW-2021-0293). Staff is to file a progress report in that case no later than May 17, 2021.

Spire Missouri West provides natural gas service to approximately 522,000 customers in 29 counties, including Carroll, Howard, Lafayette, Pettis and Saline in the KMMO listening area.