American Gas - August/September 2013 - (Page 21)

taking this money and putting it to good use.” Pennsylvania’s total budget for 2013-2014 was $28.4 billion. —Peter Haapaniemi main street Purchase Power Customers of gas supplier earn rewards for retail purchases LaNCaster, pa—An alternative electric and natural gas supplier in Pennsylvania has begun offering its customers a rewards program through which they can earn credits towards their monthly utility bills by shopping at one of thousands of designated retailers. Amerigreen, which is one of several alternative suppliers for customers of Columbia Gas, UGI, and PECO in Pennsylvania, has partnered with BillAway, a Massachusetts-based start-up, to create Amerigreen Energy Rewards. Through the program, customers can earn credit of as much as 10 percent on select purchases at retailers such as Macy’s, Walgreens, and Kmart. To earn the credits on online purchases, customers have to make them through the Amerigreen/BillAway portal. To earn credits for in-store shopping, customers go online to link their store loyalty cards to their Amerigreen account, then select the qualifying purchases they plan to make. Customers can apply their earned credits when they pay their energy bill online through the portal. Several fuel oil, propane, and sanitation companies offer BillAway’s rewards program to their customers, but Amerigreen is the only natural gas or electric supplier that does so, Jon Loercher, Amerigreen’s director of electricity and gas, told American Gas. Loercher said the company only has “a couple thousand” customers in Pennsylvania, but is planning a big marketing push there, prominently featuring the rewards program. Amerigreen is also planning to expand into deregulated markets in New Jersey and New York, he said. “We think the rewards program will be a way to help us stand out among all the other alternative suppliers consumers have to choose from,” Loercher says. —J.P.T. elm street Give Them Credit Storage facility benefits utility’s consumers pOrtLaND, Or—For the 12th straight year, Northwest Natural Gas has issued millions of dollars in credits to its customers as a result of the company’s effective management of its pipeline and storage capacity. The Portland-based utility’s annual Interstate Storage credit this year totaled $8.5 million, largely funded by the operation of its underground storage facility in Mist, Ore., for which it recently disclosed expansion plans. Residential customers saw an average $9.18 credit on their June bills; for commercial customers, it was $44. Cumulatively, Northwest has issued $80.6 million in Interstate Storage credits over the past 12 years. Randy Friedman, Northwest’s director of gas supply, told American Gas that large quantities of natural gas were first discovered in Mist, 60 miles northwest of Portland, in 1979. Ten years later, Northwest began using depleted sandstone reservoirs there for natural gas storage. In the late 1990s, the utility worked out an agreement with state regulators that allowed it to market the storage capacity it didn’t need to other utilities, manufacturers, and other large natural gas consumers. Rather than rolling the revenue from those contracts into a lower base rate, customers see the returns through an annual credit. Friedman said he doesn’t know of any other utility that has such an arrangement. It has allowed Northwest to develop storage capacity ahead of its customers’ needs and to spread out development costs over time, he said. Northwest recently disclosed plans to nearly double the size of the 2,828-acre storage facility. In filings with the state, the utility said it had identified five additional potential storage reservoirs within the Mist Field and would seek to expand its peak daily delivery capacity to 685 million standard cubic feet. The expansion would serve Portland General Electric’s electric generation facilities near Clatskanie, Ore., but other large manufacturers and industrial customers are expected to sign on as well. —J.P.T.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - August/September 2013

American Gas - August/September 2013
Contents
President’s Message
Subject Index
Dual-Fuel CNG Beauties
Digest
Issues
Issues
Issues
Need to Know
By the Numbers
Places
In Las Vegas, Another Man-Made Wonder
State House
State House
Elm Street
Main Street
A Matter of Trust
Profile
Here Comes the Grid
Marketing
Jobs
Vendor News
Marketplace
Headway

American Gas - August/September 2013

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