Connecticut commercial gas: PGA and marketers

Choice here belongs to commercial accounts, and it has a start date

Connecticut's gas choice is narrower than an electricity page would suggest and wider than a residential one. PURA regulates three gas utilities operating in the state: Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation, The Southern Connecticut Gas Company, and Eversource, still commonly called Yankee Gas and formerly named Yankee Gas Services Company. Combined they serve more than 645,000 customers across 133 of Connecticut's 169 towns, each inside its own franchise area. The Office of Consumer Counsel adds the ownership detail that matters when a buyer is checking who is on the other side of a contract: Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas are both Avangrid companies, while Yankee Gas belongs to Eversource. The scope of choice is set out on PURA's own gas page. Natural gas deregulation gave commercial and industrial customers the choice of selecting a PURA-approved gas marketer or buying gas through the regulated utility that serves them. It does not extend to residential customers, whose supply the regulated utilities buy and deliver. Firm transportation service has been available to commercial and industrial customers since April 1996, and it is the mechanism behind the choice: the account buys gas from a third-party marketer while the regulated utility continues to deliver it. Interstate transmission is the federal regulator's business, not PURA's, which is why a Connecticut gas file has a pipeline counterparty in it as well as a local one.

• PURA regulates three gas utilities: Connecticut Natural Gas, Southern Connecticut Gas, and Eversource (Yankee Gas).
• Together they serve more than 645,000 customers in 133 of Connecticut's 169 towns.
• Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas are Avangrid companies; Yankee Gas is Eversource's.
• Deregulation gave commercial and industrial customers the choice of a PURA-approved marketer or utility supply, and it does not apply to residential customers.
• Firm transportation service has been available to commercial and industrial customers since April 1996.
• FERC regulates the interstate pipelines that bring the gas into Connecticut; PURA regulates the distribution system.

One gas bill, a fixed delivery side and a contestable commodity side

A Connecticut gas bill separates into a delivery half that a supplier cannot touch and a commodity half that is the whole point of the exercise. On the delivery side the Office of Consumer Counsel describes a monthly customer charge, named the Customer Charge by Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas and the Customer Service Charge by Yankee Gas, which covers billing, meter reading, customer service and the service line and scales with the size of the customer. The delivery rate itself pays for moving gas from the point where the interstate pipelines meet the local distribution system to the site. Around those two sit several riders that are easy to mistake for supply charges. The largest is infrastructure recovery: Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas collect a Distribution Integrity Management Program charge for replacing leak-prone cast iron and bare steel mains, and Yankee Gas collects a Gas System Improvement charge that does the same work and also recovers certain core capital projects. A Revenue Decoupling Mechanism reconciles the distribution revenue a company was approved to collect against what it actually collected, with the difference trued up annually and approved by PURA. A Sales Services Charge recovers costs specific to customers who take supply from the company rather than a marketer, a System Expansion Reconciliation factor recovers system-growth costs through an annual PURA proceeding with a prior-year true-up, and a Conservation Adjustment Mechanism collects allowed conservation spending. Rates differ between heating and non-heating or general-use schedules, so the schedule printed on the bill is the starting point rather than the account's business type.

• The customer charge is fixed and monthly, and scales with the size of the customer.
• The delivery rate covers moving gas from the interstate pipeline connection to the site.
• DIMP recovers main and service line replacement for Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas; GSI does the equivalent for Yankee Gas.
• The Revenue Decoupling Mechanism trues up approved against actual distribution revenue annually, with PURA approval.
• The Sales Services Charge recovers costs specific to customers who buy supply from the utility rather than a marketer.
• The System Expansion Reconciliation and Conservation Adjustment Mechanism factors ride on the delivery side, and heating and non-heating schedules are priced separately.

The commodity line moves monthly, and it is not a retail rate

The gas supply line on a Connecticut utility bill is a pass-through, and PURA's own description of the purchased gas adjustment clause explains why that changes how a quote should be read. The clause is a rate adjustment mechanism first implemented in the 1970s that lets gas companies pass the cost of gas directly to customers under Conn. Gen. Stat. 16-19b, and the statute's design is explicit that companies do not earn a profit on the cost of gas: the cost charged to the company is the cost collected. It appears on the bill as a per-CCF amount identified as the PGA factor. The factor changes monthly by design, because it is calculated to align the cost of gas with projected customer usage for the coming month and to limit over- or under-collection in any single one; the factors are built from NYMEX and the other indexed purchase points where the companies buy, together with an estimate of consumption from historical data. The estimates are then trued up. Each October the companies file the invoices behind the purchases for a PGA year that runs 1 September to 31 August, and PURA settles the differences in its annual deferred gas costs docket, historically numbered 2X-10-01. The resulting deferred balance is credited or debited across the eleven months of the following PGA year, October through August, on a normalized sales forecast. PURA verifies the factors monthly and then adjudicates the annual filing, with interrogatories, evidentiary hearings if needed, and a final decision. For a commercial buyer the practical reading is that the utility's alternative to a marketer's offer is an indexed pass-through, not a posted price, so the question a fixed offer answers is what the index will do over the term.

• The PGA clause passes gas cost through directly under Conn. Gen. Stat. 16-19b, and companies earn no profit on the cost of gas.
• The result appears as a per-CCF PGA factor on the bill, re-set monthly against projected usage.
• Factors are built from NYMEX and the other indexed purchase points where the companies buy.
• The PGA year runs 1 September to 31 August, with invoices filed each October and differences settled in PURA's annual deferred gas costs docket.
• The deferred balance is applied across the following October-to-August period on a normalized forecast.
• PURA checks the factors monthly and adjudicates the annual filing, which can include evidentiary hearings.

The winter constraint is a delivery problem, and the regulator names it

Connecticut does not have to be told that its gas market is constrained; its regulator lists the constraint as a category of filing. PURA's gas page describes the filings it processes over the three utilities, and the list reaches from volatility of gas prices and increased demand for gas through gas supply, constrained pipeline capacity into Connecticut, and the availability and cost of liquefied natural gas, alongside affiliate transactions, transportation service, cost-of-service, rate design and revenue requirements. Those are not abstract categories: they are the subjects the state's gas companies keep bringing to a hearing, and the presence of pipeline capacity and LNG cost on that list is the clearest statement available that the binding limit in a cold snap is delivery into the state rather than the number of therms anyone wants. What that means for a commercial account is that the expensive increment is the marginal therm on the coldest days, not the annual volume. A site's exposure is therefore its winter share of consumption, and the arithmetic is a division the account can do itself: add the consumption recorded in the coldest months, divide by the annual total, and the percentage is the portion of load carrying the winter price. PURA also publishes interruptible gas rates as a separate published category, which matters for larger loads: firm and interruptible service are different commitments, and a site that can be curtailed is buying a different product from one that cannot.

• PURA's own list of filings it processes names constrained pipeline capacity into Connecticut and the availability and cost of LNG.
• The binding winter limit is delivery into the state rather than the volume anyone wants to burn.
• The costly increment is the marginal therm on the coldest days, so winter share of consumption is the number that sizes the exposure.
• Compute it as a division: coldest-month consumption over annual consumption, expressed as a percentage.
• PURA publishes approved purchased gas adjustments and interruptible gas rates as separate categories.
• Firm and interruptible service are different commitments, and a curtailable site is buying a different product.

Check the marketer's registration before anything else

Because supply in Connecticut runs through a registration rather than a licence to trade on reputation, the first check on any offer is administrative. PURA maintains a list of approved gas marketers, and each local distribution company posts its own list, with contact information, of the marketers actively providing service on its distribution system, so authorisation is both a state question and a utility-by-utility one. PURA also publishes a Natural Gas Suppliers registry, and the edition now posted covers 1 October 2026 through 30 September 2027, updated at the end of September. The useful detail is that state registration runs for a fixed twelve-month year rather than indefinitely: the edition that covered the year to 30 September 2026 has lapsed and is no longer posted, so authorisation has to be current at the time a contract is signed, and a term that runs past 30 September outlives the edition it was checked against. Two checks follow from that. Confirm the marketer's registration is in force, and confirm the company appears on the active list for the distribution system that actually serves the site, because a company registered with the state is not automatically serving every Connecticut territory. The third item is the one buyers most often leave out: since April 1996 the mechanism has been transportation service, so an account buying from a marketer holds a delivery arrangement with the utility as well as a supply contract, and the two documents have to be consistent about nomination, balancing and what happens on a day the site takes more gas than nominated.

• PURA maintains a list of approved gas marketers, and each local distribution company posts the marketers active on its own system.
• PURA's Natural Gas Suppliers registry runs a fixed 1 October to 30 September year; the edition now posted covers 1 October 2026 through 30 September 2027.
• Registration is dated rather than permanent, so confirm it is in force at signing.
• Confirm the marketer appears on the list for the distribution system serving the site, not merely in the state registry.
• A marketer purchase comes with a transportation arrangement with the utility, so delivery terms and the supply contract have to agree on nomination and balancing.

What to assemble before a Connecticut gas quote

The file a Connecticut gas quote needs is mostly the bill, read in the right units. Start with the rate schedule printed on it, since heating and non-heating schedules are priced separately and the schedule decides which delivery rates apply, and note whether the account is on firm or interruptible service. Then take twelve months of consumption by month, in the unit the bill uses, and compute the winter share before looking at any offer, because that percentage is what any winter risk is measured against. Establish whether the site currently buys from the utility or a marketer: if it is on utility supply, the comparator is the PGA factor, and if it is with a marketer, the comparator is that contract and the PGA factor side by side. Take the contract's end date and its notice period from the agreement rather than the invoice, along with the account number for each meter, and note the delivery requirements the utility places on the site. HighGround works as an advisor-assisted channel rather than a rate table, sourcing electricity and natural gas supply through the Broker Online Exchange supplier network. HighGround may receive provider compensation on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

• The rate schedule and whether the account is on firm or interruptible service.
• Twelve months of consumption by month, in the unit the bill uses, with the winter share computed from it.
• Whether the site buys from the utility or a marketer, because the comparator differs.
• The contract's end date and notice period from the agreement, plus the account number for each meter.
• Competitive supply depends on the service address, the meter and the utility territory; municipal utilities, cooperatives and some jurisdictions have no choice at all.
• HighGround may receive provider compensation on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

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