Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas have reached a settlement with Attorney General Kwame Raoul that’s expected to allow more than a million utility customers to share $125 million in bill credits, according to Raoul’s office.
The settlement stems from monthly charges the companies levied from 2017 through 2023 — the Qualified Infrastructure Plant surcharge and the Uncollectible Expense Adjustment riders. The state argued the money collected from both charges was spent on ineligible expenses, including capital work, expired permits and "unsubstantiated change orders."
Meanwhile, customer complaints increased as their bills skyrocketed over the last decade, with the companies’ blaming their costly, state-mandated Accelerated Main Replacement Program.
Last year regulators ordered the utility to overhaul its that controversial pipeline replacement program, which is over budget and behind schedule.
Originally, it had been expected to cost under $2 billion and replace more than 2,000 miles of aging underground pipes by 2030. Instead, at the halfway mark last year it already had cost more than $3.3 billion. Replacing the remaining 1,000 miles of particularly leak-prone pipe now is projected to take until 2035, with no updated cost estimate available.
This story originally appeared in Chicago Sun-Times.
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