Piedmont Natural Gas customers pay NC’s highest regulated gas rates
Piedmont Natural Gas, which serves much of North Carolina and faced waves of customer frustration over high winter bills, has the highest residential rates among North Carolina’s state-regulated natural gas providers, according to state documents.
A comparison of North Carolina Utilities Commission filings reviewed by The Charlotte Observer places Piedmont above the state’s three other regulated local distribution companies — Public Service Company of North Carolina, Frontier Natural Gas and Toccoa Natural Gas Company. However, Piedmont says direct comparisons do not fully account for differences in infrastructure, geography and customer mix.
The statewide comparison offers additional context to a winter where Charlotte-area customers reported bills hundreds of dollars higher than expected, with some topping $500, $700 or $900. As the Observer previously reported, Piedmont said average customer bills were up about 20% from the prior winter and attributed most of that increase to colder weather and rising natural gas commodity prices. According to the utility, roughly 92% of the year-over-year increase was tied to higher gas costs rather than increased usage.
According to April Utilities Commission documents, Piedmont’s residential customers are charged $2.08 per therm from November to March and $2 per therm from April to October. A therm is the standard unit used to measure natural gas consumption.
An October 2025 comparison of PNG and the state’s other regulated natural gas providers showed the utility charged customers a year-round average of $114.66 per month, about $42 more than the next-highest utility, and more than the statewide average of $76.25.
What about NC city systems?
North Carolina’s broader natural gas industry also includes eight municipally owned gas systems, including providers in Monroe, Wilson, Greenville, Lexington and Rocky Mount. The city systems operate separately from the state’s four investor-owned distribution companies and are not regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
Publicly available rate schedules show several municipal systems, including Rocky Mount, Wilson and Lexington currently post residential gas charges below Piedmont’s, though direct comparisons are imperfect because municipal providers often separate margin, commodity and fixed charges differently.
For example, Rocky Mount’s publicly posted residential rates range from about $1.47 per therm for the first 10 therms to roughly $1.20 beyond that, while Lexington’s published residential rates range from about $1.17 to $1.29 per therm depending on service plan.
Why Piedmont says its rates are higher
Piedmont argues its larger system and broader territory help explain the difference.
In a statement to the Observer, Piedmont spokesperson Jason Wheatley said the company’s rates have been reviewed and approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission as “just and reasonable” and said comparing utilities side-by-side can be misleading because each system faces different costs.
“Rate comparisons across different utilities, and even different states within the same utility, may not reflect equivalent service costs due to a number of factors,” Wheatley said in an email. “(Including) different infrastructure costs and system configurations, varying customer density and geographic service challenges, different regulatory rate structures approved for each utility.”
Wheatley said Piedmont serves a broader area than other utilities like Public Service Company of North Carolina, the state’s second-largest natural gas provider. While PSNC’s service territory is centered more heavily in areas such as Asheville, Gastonia and Raleigh, Piedmont’s stretches from Charlotte to Wilmington to Elizabeth City.
PNG operates approximately 22,000 miles of natural gas infrastructure across North Carolina, including about 2,300 miles of transmission lines, compared with about 13,000 miles of infrastructure and 500 miles of transmission for PSNC.
Under North Carolina law, regulated gas utilities must periodically justify their rates through formal proceedings, where regulators review expenses, infrastructure investments and customer allocations before approving charges.
Piedmont’s most recent general rate case took effect in late 2024 and increased annual revenues by about $88 million, according to prior Observer reporting. The utility’s approved return on equity was 9.8%.
Why industrial customer often pay less
Piedmont’s filings also show another notable pricing difference: large industrial users often pay lower per-unit rates than homeowners depending on how much gas they consume.
That discrepancy in rates can appear striking on paper, but lower industrial pricing does not automatically mean residential customers are subsidizing large-volume users, according to Piedmont.
“Costs are allocated to each customer class based on the cost the customer class drives or uses,” Wheatley said. “Piedmont’s rate structure does not result in residential customers paying a larger share of system costs.”
Like many regulated utilities, Piedmont’s rates include both fixed charges and usage. The utility said industrial customers typically still pay more overall because they use significantly more natural gas.
This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Piedmont Natural Gas customers pay NC’s highest regulated gas rates."
