National Grid to raise LI customers' bills

National Grid's 550,000 natural-gas customers on Long Island will see a 1.5 percent increase in their bills come January, with possibly another boost to follow in the months ahead, according to regulatory filings.

Both the set and proposed increases are tied to the costs for investigating and cleaning up toxic gas-plant sites around Long Island.

A typical National Grid residential heating customer with a $135 monthly bill will see a $2.15 increase starting in January, the company said. The increase includes a $1.15 surcharge increase and a $1 increase tied to a new rate structure, it said.

While the cost of natural gas itself has gone down around 10 percent year over year - a reduction consumers have already seen in lower bills - the new increase will appear on the delivery portion of bills, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Margulies.

The surcharge increase is tied to a previously state-approved plan for National Grid to investigate and clean up decades-old gas-making plants from Sag Harbor to Hempstead.

When London-based National Grid acquired KeySpan in 2007, it received pre-approval from the state Public Service Commission to place a surcharge on bills to cover the cost of studying and cleaning up more than a dozen legacy gas-making sites.

The sites, which made vaporous gas by burning coal in oil, were owned by the former Long Island Lighting Co., before creation of the Long Island Power Authority. The former KeySpan took on the gas operations and their liabilities, which were acquired by National Grid.

In addition to the January increase, National Grid has filed a separate rate seeking authority from the PSC to hike the site-cleanup surcharge because costs have gone higher than expected. That proposal calls for a 2.7 percent bill increase, or roughly $60 a year, atop the 1.5 percent, the company said.

In the January PSC filing outlining the reasons for the increase, National Grid said costs to clean up toxic sites on Long Island were expected to jump $71 million this year.

Anne Dalton, a PSC spokeswoman, said that January petition "is under active review," with a decision expected early next year.