WALL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) today received approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to adjust components of its rates, which will reduce the typical residential heating customer’s bill by 0.7 percent. In June, NJNG filed for an increase of 4.2 percent related to its Basic Gas Supply Service (BGSS) rate based on market conditions at the time. Due to recent market price decreases and successful natural gas purchasing strategies, however, NJNG is able to maintain its current BGSS rate of $0.3654 per therm.

The total net effect is an overall decrease of 0.7 percent on the typical residential heating customer’s annual bills, effective October 1, 2017. The typical residential heating customer using 1,000 therms a year would see their annual bill go from $1,070.18 to $1,062.88, a decrease of $7.30.

“Today’s announcement is good news for our customers as we prepare for the heating season,” said Laurence M. Downes, chairman and CEO of New Jersey Natural Gas. “We are pleased our efforts will provide this extra relief to our customers.”

Customers will benefit from a 1.5 percent and 0.4 percent decrease related to NJNG’s Conservation Incentive Program (CIP) and Universal Service Fund (USF) rates, respectively. The CIP normalizes year-to-year fluctuation from changing weather and usage patterns on both customers’ bills and NJNG’s financial margins, while the USF is a statewide program providing energy assistance benefits to income-eligible customers. These rates offset the 0.6 percent increase to customer’s bills related to the Balancing Charge and 0.6 percent increase related to NJNG’s New Jersey Reinvestment in System Enhancement (NJ RISE) and Safety Acceleration and Facility Enhancement (SAFE II) programs. The BGSS and Balancing Charge recover the costs of natural gas supply delivered to NJNG’s system to serve its customers and balance deliveries associated with customer usage. The $4.1 million NJ RISE and SAFE II base rate increase is associated with capital investments of $30.5 million through June 30, 2017, which improve reliability and resiliency of NJNG’s service to customers.

About New Jersey Resources

New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) is a Fortune 1000 company that, through its subsidiaries, provides safe and reliable natural gas and clean energy services, including transportation, distribution, asset management and home services. NJR is composed of six primary businesses:

• New Jersey Natural Gas, NJR’s principal subsidiary, operates and maintains over 7,300 miles of natural gas transportation and distribution infrastructure to serve over half a million customers in New Jersey’s Monmouth, Ocean and parts of Morris, Middlesex and Burlington counties.
• NJR Clean Energy Ventures invests in, owns and operates solar and onshore wind projects with a total capacity of more than 300 megawatts, providing residential and commercial customers with low-carbon solutions.
• NJR Energy Services manages a diversified portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets and provides physical natural gas services and customized energy solutions to its customers across North America.
• NJR Midstream serves customers from local distributors and producers to electric generators and wholesale marketers through its 50 percent equity ownership in the Steckman Ridge natural gas storage facility and its stake in Dominion Midstream Partners, L.P., as well as its 20 percent equity interest in the PennEast Pipeline Project.
• NJR Home Services provides service contracts as well as heating, central air conditioning, water heaters, standby generators, solar and other indoor and outdoor comfort products to residential homes throughout New Jersey.

NJR and its more than 1,000 employees are committed to helping customers save energy and money by promoting conservation and encouraging efficiency through Conserve to Preserve^® and initiatives such as The SAVEGREEN Project^® and The Sunlight Advantage^®.

For more information about NJR:

Visit www.njresources.com.

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