Cook or heat with natural gas?

Beginning with the February bill, Richmond customers will pay a bit extra for the fuel.

Richmond Gas Works, the city’s gas utility, has announced customers will be charged an extra penny for every 10 cubic feet of natural gas used. Ten cubic feet is the equivalent of 75 gallons of gasoline.

According to Gas Works, the average customer uses about 7,000 cubic feet of natural gas per month and can expect to pay an extra $7 in February for that amount of gas compared with January’s price.

Angela Fountain, spokeswoman for the city’s gas utility, stated that the impending increase involves the purchase gas charge, or PGC. That charge is going up to enable Richmond Gas Works to recover the higher cost the utility paid for the fuel in the months before winter began, she continued.

The utility had to pay more after the price spiked by 78 percent between September and mid-November as stored inventories across the country fell to their lowest levels in years and early forecasts suggested winter would begin colder than normal. Like other companies, Richmond Gas Works sought to prepare for possible higher demand.

In spite of the price spike nationally, Richmond’s utility during the fall also “made a critical decision to keep the PGC where it was in deference to the ratepayer,” Ms. Fountain stated.

That kept in place the April price cut, she stated, which dropped the utility’s PGC charge to customers by 24 percent from 5.2 cents per 10 cubic feet to 4 cents per 10 cubic feet.

So even though the price of the fuel has collapsed and is now down more than 30 percent from the November peak, Ms. Fountain stated the utility still must recover the higher cost it paid for the fuel in October and November.

The increase will boost the PGC charge from 4 cents per 10 cubic feet to 5 cents per 10 cubic feet next month.

She said the department would work with customers who may face a hardship as a result of the increase. She urged customers to contact customer service at (804) 646-4646 to learn about payment options.

Ms. Fountain said the utility would continue to monitor the fuel’s price and would reduce the PGC when feasible.