MidAmerican Energy has filed a request with the Iowa Utilities Commission seeking approval to add a capital investment charge to the bill of Iowa residential gas customers.
MidAmerican spokesman Geoff Greenwood says the charge would be .4%. “The capital investment charge helps cover costs that Mid-American has already paid out that are associated with certain natural gas system costs such as safety and compliance and some other requirements that are imposed upon us by local governments,” he says.
Greenwood says there are several items the money would cover. Pipe relocation, that’s one example due to a local project such as a street improvement. There also are some compliance changes that are requiring investment by the company that we’ve already made, so that is another charge that is eligible for this cost recovery,” he says.
Greenwood says if the charge is approved, it would be a small addition to customer bills. It’s about 17 cents a month for our residential customers here in Iowa, and we have requested that the Iowa Utilities Commission to approve that fee, and it is up to the commission to make that decision, and it could, if approved, start showing up on our customer bills in June,” Greenwood says.
Greenwood says MidAmerican has around 620,000 natural gas customers in Iowa.