CenterPoint Energy 2008 Annual Report Download - page 13

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TEXAS
1.5 MILLION
MINNESOTA
798,000
OKLAHOMA
105,000
ARKANSAS
445,000
MISSISSIPPI
122,000
LOUISIANA
251,000
We continue to seek approval by our
regulators of natural gas rates that
minimize the impacts of weather
and reduced customer use. These
progressive rate designs support the
promotion of energy conservation
and better align the interests of our
company and our customers. As part
of an overall settlement in our Texas
Coast jurisdiction, we implemented a
new annual cost-of-service adjustment
mechanism, a concept we hope to
implement in other jurisdictions.
In Minnesota, as part of a $59.8 million
rate request, we proposed a pilot
program with a rate mechanism that
separates the company’s revenue from
the volume of natural gas sold. We expect
the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission
to make a final decision in January
2010. We also implemented a weather
adjustment rate mechanism in Oklahoma.
We continue to focus on increasing
productivity and deploying new
technologies to help us control costs
and improve customer service.
Finally, customers ranked us first in
the Midwest Region in the J.D. Power
and Associates 2008 Gas Utility
Residential Customer Satisfaction
StudySM, and customers in the South
gave us significantly higher overall
ratings than in 2007.
Our natural gas distribution business
reported operating income of $215 million,
a decline of only $3 million from 2007
record earnings. These results reflected
the impacts of the struggling economy,
reduced customer energy use and
volatile natural gas prices. Across our
six-state service area, we added nearly
25,000 customers.
NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION
ALIGNING THE INTERESTS
OF OUR COMPANY,
CUSTOMERS AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
PAGE 11