Continuing to lead the way for reliable and safe natural gas access for communities throughout Maine with an unparalleled commitment to customer service, safety, innovation and integrity.

At Summit Natural Gas of Maine (Summit), our goal is to provide safe, reliable, clean and affordable natural gas to individuals, families and businesses through exceptional customer service and a commitment to community.

Summit is proud to maintain a state-of-the-art natural gas distribution system. In order to continue to provide service to thousands of customers for home heating, hot water, cooking and more, we must maintain and invest in more than 300 miles of pipeline while continuing to provide the quality customer service you’ve come to expect for this local natural gas utility company. These are the services that are paid for through our rates.

The rate plan that was established in 2013 when Summit first began serving communities in Maine is expiring; however, the cost to operate our system is exceeding what we are collecting in rates. When the cost of operating and maintaining our system surpasses what customers are paying in rates, we must request a change in our rates from the Maine Public Utilities Commission (Commission), in the form of a rate case.

At Summit, we work hard to keep our rates low while continuing to invest in our infrastructure and building natural gas service to new communities. The revenue from our rates goes toward:

• Efficient response times to customer service calls so we can get questions answered quickly and thoroughly.
• 24-hour, seven-days per week and 365-days per year dispatch and emergency response.
• Investments in new, smart technologies to monitor, inspect and protect the integrity of our pipeline system so gas is delivered safely and reliably to our customers.

• Educational programs to train contractors, customers, communities, public safety officials and first responders to help prevent damage to our underground pipes and protect those who live and work near them.
• Local offices throughout our service territories and employees who live and work in the communities we serve so we can quickly respond to service calls, continually monitor our pipeline system, detect leaks and make needed repairs so we can get gas to you when you need it.

Our pipeline infrastructure is essential to reducing emissions and achieving deep decarbonization in the states we operate in, which is why Summit is working to lead the way in developing and integrating low carbon, carbon neutral and carbon negative fuels into our gas supply.

Summit is leading the way in reducing emissions by investing in innovative technologies that reduce the emissions of our system and the energy we provide our customers:

• In 2019, Summit launched a state-of-the-art Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) development project with family dairy farms throughout central Maine to turn the manure from their daily operations into RNG.
• Summit launched Maine’s first voluntary Renewable Natural Gas tariff in 2019, providing our customers the opportunity to reduce their environmental footprint by matching their gas demand with attributes from RNG.
• In 2020, Summit piloted a methane recapture pilot program and was the 2021 winner of Southern Gas Association’s ESG award for the innovative methane recapture pilot.
• In 2021, Summit was the recipient of a $5 million grant from the Department of Energy to pilot a green hydrogen biogas project in Clinton, Maine alongside our RNG dairy digester. Once developed, our project will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Proposed New Rates

From the day of our filing, the Commission has nine months to review materials, hold hearings and gather input from the public before issuing a decision. We requested that our new rates become effective by January 1, 2023.

We understand that any adjustment in rates can impact our customers, which is why we are proposing a gradual rate adjustment over the coming years, to limit the overall impact on customer bills at one time.

This will increase predictability for customers, limit the annual impact to their heating bills, and allow us to keep up with the cost of our operations.

Under the proposed plan, the average monthly increases to Summit’s distribution and service & facility rates, which do not include the cost of gas itself, would vary for different customer classes, as shown in this table.