Understanding Your Natural Gas Bill

Your monthly natural gas bill includes several components and charges.

• Primary Gas – This is the natural gas received from Western Canada. During a normal weather year, Primary Gas represents approximately 98 per cent of a customer's annual natural gas use. It can be purchased:
  • on an unregulated basis from a natural gas marketer (Primary Gas is the only component of natural gas service that natural gas marketers can provide);
  • from Manitoba Hydro at rates regulated by the Public Utilities Board.
  The price that Manitoba Hydro pays for our Primary Gas supply is passed directly on to the customer without any markup.
• Supplemental Gas – This is natural gas that we purchase to ensure supply is available when demand is higher than normal. This usually represents approximately 2 per cent of a customer's annual natural gas use, but does fluctuate during warmer- or colder-than-normal years.
• Transportation to Manitoba Hydro – This is the cost of transporting natural gas to Manitoba. It includes pipeline charges and the cost of storage facilities where we store natural gas purchased in the summer for use in the winter.
• Distribution to Customer – This is the cost of delivering natural gas to a customer's home or business. It includes the cost of pipe and facilities, as well as the operation and maintenance costs for the distribution system and a small cost component related to unaccounted-for gas. A portion of these costs is recovered through the Basic Monthly Charge.
• Basic Monthly Charge – This charge pays a portion of the cost of providing dependable natural gas service and does not depend on how much natural gas a customer uses. It helps pay for such things as the maintenance of meters and underground pipelines, the cost of meter reading, billing and record keeping.
• Billing Percentages –Shows how much of a customer's gas consumption was Primary Gas and how much was Supplemental Gas. The combined Primary and Supplemental billing percentages will always total 100 per cent. These percentages are subject to change to reflect how much of each type of supply is actually purchased. For example, the February 1, 2012 billing percentages are 99 per cent Primary and 1 per cent Supplemental for Firm customers, and 95 per cent Primary and 5 per cent Supplemental for Interruptible customers.
  View current and historical billing percentages.

In addition to these bill components, customers who use High Volume Firm Service, Mainline Firm Service, or Interruptible Service also have Demand Transportation and Demand Distribution charges.