JEFFERSON CITY — A small decrease in natural gas costs for all Ameren Missouri residential customers took effect Nov. 1.

The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) announced Oct. 31 that a 2-cent decrease per hundred cubic feet (Ccf) of natural gas was in order to “reflect estimated changes in the wholesale cost of natural gas as well as a change in the company’s Actual Cost Adjustment (ACA) factor.”

 Natural gas customers of Union Electric Company, doing business as Ameren Missouri will see natural gas rates change under a filing effective on Nov. 1, 2018.

According to the PSC, the ACA factor is a mechanism which tracks any over-collection or under-collection of actual natural gas costs over a 12-month period. The net over- or under-collected balances are subsequently either refunded or collected the next year.

Ameren Missouri residential customers in all of its service areas will see natural gas rates decrease by approximately 2 cents per Ccf (per hundred cubic feet of natural gas). This change will affect Ameren Missouri natural gas customers in Columbia, Rolla, Salem, Owensville, Jefferson City, Mexico, Wentzville, Cape Girardeau and Marble Hill.

Approximately 50 to 55 percent of a customer’s current natural gas bill reflects the cost of natural gas from wholesale suppliers, according to the PSC. The wholesale cost of natural gas — the cost your local natural gas company must pay to its suppliers for natural gas — is not regulated by the Missouri Public Service Commission. 

The wellhead cost of natural gas is unregulated and is primarily driven by supply, demand and the weather. 

The Missouri Public Service Commission noted it does conduct an annual regulatory review to ensure that regulated natural gas companies make prudent decisions in securing natural gas supplies for their customers. Ameren Missouri serves approximately 130,400 natural gas customers in Missouri. 

This announcement was made regarding Case No. GR-2018-0346.