Rates this winter for Black Hills Energy customers in northern Arkansas will rise 16.47 percent and not the 9.18 percent it reported earlier this week, the company said Wednesday.
That means a customer with a $100 monthly bill last winter will see a $116.47 bill this winter.
Black Hills indicated in an article in Tuesday's editions that the increase would be 9.18 percent, based on an increase in the cost of natural gas, said Rich Davis, Black Hills' manager of community and government affairs.
"But we had new rates go into effect in February this year," Davis said Wednesday. "So that increase [of 9.18 percent] was based on rates that were in effect prior to February."
The Arkansas Public Service Commission approved a 10.15 percent increase in rates for Black Hills in February, said John Bethel, executive director of the commission's general staff.
Black Hills and two other natural gas utilities in the state -- CenterPoint Energy and Arkansas Oklahoma Gas -- are required by the commission to file on Oct. 31 every year what their rates will be for the winter based on their cost for natural gas. The time period for winter rates begins Nov. 1 and ends March 31.
CenterPoint's rates increased 19 percent for this winter and Arkansas Oklahoma Gas' rates went up 13 percent.
The utilities are allowed to pass along their cost of natural gas to customers but they cannot take a profit on fuel prices.
The cost of natural gas increased about 20 percent in the past year, said James Williams, an energy economist who owns WTRG Economics near Russellville.
Black Hills has about 163,000 customers in Northwest Arkansas and the northern third of the state. Black Hills has its Arkansas corporate office in Fayetteville and division offices in Fayetteville, Lowell, Ozark, Harrison and Blytheville.
Black Hills this year acquired SourceGas, which had about 425,000 customers in Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, for about $1.2 billion. SourceGas bought Arkansas Western Gas in 2008.
Business on 11/04/2016