Utilities · reading the bill
What every charge on a Georgia gas bill means.
Your bill carries two fixed monthly charges from two different companies, and only one of them changes if you switch. Atlanta Gas Light bills a delivery charge for the pipes — on bills read here, $38 to $42 a month before you burn any gas. Your marketer bills its own customer charge, typically around $5. The delivery charge is the same whoever sells you the gas, so it is the marketer's charge and the rate per therm that are worth shopping.
Ready to compare plans? View the Georgia natural gas rate chart from public PSC filings, including fixed and variable plans. Check the source month, eligibility and current provider terms before switching.
The two companies on one bill
Georgia deregulated natural gas retail, so the company that delivers your gas is not the company that sells it. Atlanta Gas Light owns and maintains the pipes and charges a regulated distribution or base charge for delivery. Your marketer — True Natural Gas, SCANA, Gas South, Georgia Natural Gas and the rest — buys the gas and sells it to you, and charges its own fixed monthly customer charge on top of the per-therm rate.
That is why switching marketer changes less of your bill than the advertising implies. The delivery charge does not move. In a mild month, when you have burned very little gas, the two fixed charges can be most of what you owe.
Telling the two charges apart
They look alike on the page — both are fixed monthly lines with a dollar amount — and they are easy to confuse. The reliable tell is size. A marketer's customer charge is small: on the bills read here it has been $4.99, $4.99 and $5.85. Atlanta Gas Light's base charge alongside them was $42.14 and $38.50 — several times larger.
This is not a theoretical confusion. A bill here showing a $7.99 customer charge was once read as $4.99, because both numbers appeared as fixed monthly lines and the wrong one was picked. Anything above $20 is now rejected outright as a marketer customer charge, and when the reading is ambiguous the field is left blank rather than guessed — a blank you can fill in beats a number you would have trusted.
Why a low rate can still mean a high bill
A rate per therm multiplies by usage; a fixed charge does not. Two plans at $0.79 and $0.69 a therm differ by $10 over 100 therms — less than the gap between a $4.99 customer charge and a $14.99 one. The cheaper-looking rate can lose.
The Georgia PSC solves this by publishing an apples-to-apples figure: it folds each marketer's fixed monthly charge into the per-therm number using its own usage assumption. That is the figure to compare between marketers, and it is the one listed on the rate page. Because the usage assumption is the Commission's rather than yours, read it as a ranking rather than a forecast.
What to check on your own bill
Four things decide whether switching is worth it: your rate per therm, your marketer's customer charge, whether the plan is fixed or variable, and when the term ends. The last one matters most and is the easiest to miss — a fixed plan rolling onto a variable rate is the usual reason a bill jumps without anything else changing.
Upload a photo of your bill and those four are pulled out and compared against the current PSC chart. Every figure is shown with a confidence level and can be corrected, because reading a photograph of a statement is the least reliable step in the whole process.
Common questions
What is the customer service charge on my Georgia gas bill?
It is your marketer's own fixed monthly fee, charged whether you use any gas or not. On bills read here it has been between $4.99 and $5.99 a month. It is separate from Atlanta Gas Light's base charge, and it is one of the few parts of the bill that changes when you switch marketer.
Why does my gas bill have two fixed monthly charges?
Because two companies are involved. Atlanta Gas Light owns the pipes and bills a distribution or base charge for delivery; your marketer sells you the gas and bills its own customer charge. The delivery charge is identical whichever marketer you choose, so only the marketer's charge is worth shopping.
Why is my Georgia gas bill so high when my rate is low?
Usually the delivery charge. On bills read here, Atlanta Gas Light's base charge has been $38 to $42 a month before any gas is used, against a marketer customer charge of about $5. A low rate per therm cannot offset a fixed charge, and in a warm month the fixed charges can exceed the cost of the gas itself.
What is the Atlanta Gas Light base charge and can I avoid it?
It is the regulated charge for delivering gas through Atlanta Gas Light's pipes, and no. Every Georgia customer in AGL's territory pays it regardless of marketer, so it is not a reason to switch or stay.
Does the PSC apples-to-apples rate include the customer charge?
Yes. The Commission folds each marketer's fixed monthly charge into a single per-therm figure using its own usage assumption, which is what makes the plans comparable. It will not match your usage, so treat it as a ranking tool rather than a prediction of your bill.
Which number should I compare between marketers?
The apples-to-apples rate per therm, because it already contains the customer charge. Comparing advertised rates alone hides a marketer with a low rate and a high monthly fee.