Residential Gas Migration Growth Slows at Two Pa. Territories, Decline Accelerates in Others

On a statewide basis, the growth in Pennsylvania residential gas migration slowed by two-thirds for the third quarter of the year, versus the second quarter, according to the latest Office of Consumer Advocate statistics.

The OCA's stats can be found here.

A comparison to July's stats as compiled by Matters can be found here.

Most notably, Columbia Gas, which saw net growth of 5,700 new residential shoppers from April 1 to July 1, saw net residential migration growth of only 24 accounts from July 1 to October 1.

PECO also saw slower growth during the third quarter, but still saw a healthy amount of residential migration growth. From July 1 to October 1, PECO saw a net gain of 4,700 new residential gas shoppers, versus growth of 6,900 from April 1 to July 1.

Meanwhile, the net decline in residential migration at National Fuel Gas Distribution nearly tripled, with a net decrease of 1,600 residential shoppers from July 1 to October 1, versus a net decrease of 550 from April 1 to July 1.

Equitable Gas saw its net attrition rate in residential migration essentially flat, with a net of 300 residential customers leaving competitive supply from July 1 to October 1.

One bright spot was Peoples Natural Gas, which saw a reversal in the prior loss of customers on competitive supply. From July 1 to October 1, Peoples saw net residential customer migration growth of 70, versus a net loss of nearly 1,000 shoppers from April 1 to July 1. This also represents continued improvement from a net loss of 1,600 residential shoppers during the first quarter of the year.

UGI Utilities - Gas Division was another bright spot, with net residential migration growth accelerating to 655 from July 1 to October 1, versus net growth of 182 from April 1 to July 1.

Statewide, residential gas customer migration growth was only 3,618 from July 1 to October 1, down from 11,012 from April 1 to July 1.