OKLAHOMA CITY – The state Corporation Commission has authorized Fort Cobb Fuel Authority to increase the base rate for its residential, domestic tap, and commercial customers to $24.50 per month effective Jan. 1, 2025.
For residential customers in the FCFA Division in southwest Oklahoma, the increase will amount to $7.62/month, or 45%. For residential customers in the LeAnn Division in northern and eastern Oklahoma, the increase will be $9.17/ month, or 37.4%. The monthly increase for commercial customers will be $5.25 in the Fort Cobb Division and $36.10 in the LeAnn Division.
In addition, all residential, commercial, and domestic tap customers will pay $3.44 per hundred cubic feet (ccf) for the first 5 ccf.
The new rates reflect continuation of a “move toward unification of the class rates and structures” in the Fort Cobb and LeAnn divisions, said David Scalf, Programs Manager-Rates with the Corporation Commission’s Public Utility Division.
The last time FCFA raised its rates was nine years ago, in 2015, and those rates were based on the company’s performance 11 years ago, in calendar year 2013.
The commission directed the company to file another rate case no later than December 2028 in order to “eliminate or mute … customer rate shock.”
Corporation Commissioners authorized FCFA to boost its annual revenues by $799,214, which was 39% less than the $1.3 million FCFA asked for when it filed the rate hike request 11 months ago.
The revenue increase excludes the cost of natur al gas that FCFA buys from third-party non-affiliated gas suppliers and resells to its customers. (FCFA sold 30% more natural gas in January this year than it did during the same month last year, Oklahoma City attorney Ron Comingdeer told the commission on March 13.) It also excludes $47,000 in rate case expenses that will be amortized over a five-year period, at $9,400/ year.
The company was allowed to impose an interim, temporary rate increase on Feb. 1 pending the f inal order in the rate case that was issued May 14.
Under the new rate schedule, Fort Cobb Fuel Authority is allowed a return on equity of 11.4%. I ts current debt-to-equity ratio is 61.59% debt and 38.41% equity.
A document filed with the Corporation Commission in a separate matter three years ago reported FCFA provides natural gas to approximately 4,000 customers at various locations throughout Oklahoma.
Fort Cobb Fuel Authority is a privately held company owned and operated by Navitas Utility Corp., which is based in California. The Navitas website says it serves 17 Oklahoma counties.
FCFA is comprised of two divisions. Its LeAnn Division serves Kay, Logan, Nowata, Osage, and Washington counties, and Pawnee County (including Jennings and Hallett). The Fort Cobb Fuel Authority Division includes Caddo, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Stephens, Washita, and some other counties, according to Navitas.
Navitas Assets acquired the Fort Cobb Fuel Authority in 2007 and the LeAnn Gas Co. in 2009.
The Navitas website says it serves Alma, rural Carnegie, Eakly, rural Fort Cobb and the rural Fort Cobb Lake area, Gracemont, Lookeba, Sickles and Velma in southwest Oklahoma, as well as Rimrock (the Hollis area).