AGL Resources (GAS) announced today that New Jersey regulators have approved a $115 million infrastructure replacement program for Elizabethtown Gas, the utility's local natural gas subsidiary.
The four-year project comes as part of the state's larger plan to invest in its natural gas infrastructure to cut energy costs and increase its energy security. AGL's Elizabethtown Gas will initially front the construction costs, but will file a rate case before September 2016 to recoup costs for its investment.
This latest announcement comes just two weeks after AGL's Atlanta Gas Light Company in Georgia received similar approval to spend $275 million replacing vintage plastic pipes over a four-year period. For this project, AGL has already added around $0.48 on to customers' monthly bills.
"Our recently approved infrastructure investment programs in Georgia and New Jersey are vital to maintaining and enhancing the overall reliability, safety, and integrity of our distribution systems in those service areas," said Chairman, President, and CEO John Somerhalder in a statement today. "We are fortunate to operate in states where our regulators and legislators recognize the importance of these critical infrastructure programs and support their implementation in a way that minimizes the overall impact on customer bills and enables the company to recover its costs in a timely manner."
