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Gas sales rates are comprised of the following:

Gigajoule (GJ):	A gigajoule (GJ) is a metric unit of energy used in our rates. One GJ is equivalent to 947,817 BTU/h or 277.8 KW/h of electricity or 25.6 litres of fuel oil or 39.1 litres of propane.
Basic Monthly Charge:	The basic monthly charge is a fixed fee that pays a portion of the cost of the facilities required by Pacific Northern to be ready and able to deliver gas to customers regardless of the amount of gas consumed each month.
Delivery Charge:	The delivery charge recovers the costs incurred by Pacific Northern to deliver gas through its pipeline facilities to your home or business.
Company Use Rate Rider:	The term Company Use refers to the gas Pacific Northern consumes in the operation of its gas pipeline systems in each service area. The forecast commodity cost of Company Use gas is included in Pacific Northern's budgeted costs used to determine customer rates. Actual gas market prices paid by Pacific Northern will be different than the forecast gas market prices used in the budget depending on actual gas price markets. The difference between the forecast and actual prices is recorded by Pacific Northern in an account called the Gas Cost Variance Account (GCVA). The balance of this account is reviewed by Pacific Northern and the B.C. Utilities Commission every three months. If actual gas market prices have exceeded forecast gas market prices, then a Company Use debit rate rider will be added to rates to recover the shortfall in the recovery of actual gas costs. If forecast gas market prices are greater than actual gas market prices, then a Company Use credit rate rider will be added to rates. In this way, customers pay the same price for Company Use gas as is paid by Pacific Northern.
RSAM Rate Rider:	RSAM stands for “Revenue Stabilization Adjustment Mechanism”. Every year Pacific Northern forecasts how much revenue it will receive from customers based on the annual forecast of gas to be consumed by customers. It is impossible to accurately forecast deliveries to customers because of the affect of weather on gas consumption. If the weather is colder than expected, then more gas will be consumed and revenues may be greater than what was forecast to be recovered from customers. Therefore, Pacific Northern is allowed by the B.C. Utilities Commission to record the difference between forecast and actual revenue recovery from residential and small commercial customers in the RSAM deferral account. In this way, if the actual deliveries are more than forecast deliveries with resulting higher revenue, then a credit balance will be recorded in the RSAM deferral account and a RSAM credit rate rider will be applied to rates for the purpose of stabilizing revenue from year to year. On the other hand if actual deliveries are less than forecast deliveries, then a debit RSAM rate rider will be added to residential and small commercial customers rates.
Commodity Charge:	The commodity charge recovers the costs paid by Pacific Northern to buy gas on the open gas market. These costs are passed through to customers without mark-up. The commodity charge will change from time to time in response to changes in gas market prices.
GCVA Rate Rider:	The commodity charge payable by customers is based on a forecast of the gas market prices Pacific Northern expects to pay to gas suppliers over a 12 month period. The difference between the forecast commodity cost Pacific Northern charges its customers and the actual gas market prices are recorded by Pacific Northern in an account called the Gas Cost Variance Account (GCVA). 'The balance of this account is reviewed by Pacific Northern and the B.C. Utilities Commission every three months. If actual gas market prices have exceeded forecast gas market prices, then a GCVA debit rate rider will be added to rates to recover the shortfall in the recovery of actual gas costs. 'If forecast gas market prices are greater than actual gas market prices, a credit GCVA rate rider will be deducted from customer rates. In this way, customers pay the same cost for gas as is paid by Pacific Northern.
B.C. Utilities Commission:	Pacific Northern's rates are reviewed and approved by the B.C. Utilities Commission, a regulatory body that sets rates for all utilities in British Columbia. For more information about the Utilities Commission, visit www.bcuc.com.