Regulators refuse more time in ENSTAR's gas rate case, with a decision due Jan. 28

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska on Oct. 29 refused to give the parties in ENSTAR Natural Gas Company's rate case more time for closing arguments, citing its own scheduling conflicts. A final decision on how much Southcentral Alaska customers will pay for gas delivery is due by Jan. 28.

Those customers have been paying higher interim rates since July 2025. For homes and businesses on the smallest meters, the monthly customer charge went from $16.25 to $20. The base charge, billed per hundred cubic feet of gas, went from about 15 cents to about 18.5 cents.

The interim increase is subject to refund if regulators approve less.

ENSTAR, which serves more than 155,000 customers in Anchorage, the Mat-Su and the Kenai Peninsula, asked in May 2025 for $24.9 million a year. It estimated the full increase would add $8.95 a month to the average customer's bill. The interim rates already bring in about $21.6 million of it. Its proposed permanent rates would raise the small-meter customer charge again, to $21.

The utility says more than $127 million in system investments since its last rate case, plus rising costs, have left it earning less than the return regulators approved. It has also asked the commission to approve a formula that would adjust its rates every year without a full rate case. The commission is considering both requests together.

Two property companies, JL Properties and RSD Properties, asked Oct. 29 to push closing arguments back from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4. Transcripts of the hearing weren't finished, they said, and the parties wanted time to work them into their arguments. The same companies asked regulators in August to dismiss the case.

No one opposed the delay. The companies said ENSTAR took no position and that the attorney general's Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy section, Chugach Electric Association and federal agencies didn't object.

The commission said no the same day. It had first proposed oral arguments in September or written closings by Oct. 23, then agreed to Oct. 30 at the parties' request. The parties' earlier agreement to move the decision deadline to Jan. 28 "does not fully alleviate our scheduling conflicts," the order says, and it couldn't approve another extension.

The order also extended the suspension of ENSTAR's two filings, which had been set to end Dec. 17, to Jan. 28, so they line up with the deadline for a final decision.

Matanuska Electric Association, once a party to the case, has withdrawn.