Standard choice offer price set at auction for Vectren customers

DAYTON — Residential and small-business consumers of natural gas in Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio’s service area who are eligible to select a supplier through the Choice program but haven’t done so are to begin receiving their gas supply at the standard choice offer price on April 1.

Under a change that took effect last year, Vectren no longer buys gas for its customers who have not chosen to buy natural gas from a Choice supplier. Instead, through an auction, suppliers compete for the right to provide natural gas to these Choice-eligible customers.

Customers who have already selected a third-party natural gas supplier through the Choice program will not be affected by the change.

An auction conducted on Jan. 12 resulted in a retail price adjustment of 15.5 cents per 100 cubic feet (ccf). This amount is added to the New York Mercantile Exchange month-end settlement price for natural gas to form the total, standard choice offer gas cost charge. It will be effective April 1 through March 31, 2011.

The majority of the standard choice offer price reflects the NYMEX-based market price, Vectren said Thursday, March 4. The monthly price will change because the natural gas commodity is bought and sold in an open market, and its price can vary with changes in supply and demand, Vectren said.

Four natural gas suppliers won the right to supply natural gas to eligible Vectren customers at the standard choice offer price: DTE Energy Supply, IGS Energy, Ohio Natural Gas and Vectren Source. The supplier serving the customer’s home or business will appear on the April 2010 bill, as will the standard choice offer price. Regardless of the supplier, the monthly standard choice offer prices should be the same, officials said. Vectren’s charges for delivery service will still appear under the line item entitled “distribution and service charges.”

Approximately 35 percent of Vectren’s customers have selected a natural gas supplier.

For more information, call Vectren at 1-800-227-1376 or go online to www.vectren.com.