May 6--It used to be that natural gas customers only paid for what they consumed.

When they cranked up the heat, they paid more. When they lowered the thermostat, they paid less.

Not any more.

Roanoke Gas customers now may also have to pay for abnormal weather patterns.

Here's how this new concept -- called the Weather Normalization Adjustment -- works.

If the winter season is significantly warmer than normal, then customers may pay a once-a-year charge so the gas company can recover a portion of the revenue it would have had in a normal season.

Likewise, customers may get a refund next May if this year's winter is significantly colder than normal.

The State Corporation Commission authorized this charge in January 2003. The weather adjustment clause was part of a rate increase filed by Roanoke Gas in 2002.

Starting Saturday, customers will see a separate, one-time charge on their bills. The average residential customer will see a charge of about $6.50.

Commercial and industrial customers will see a higher charge because they use more gas.

However, some industrial customers do not have firm contracts with Roanoke Gas and are subject to service interruptions on very cold days. These customers' usage is not affected by the weather. Their gas usage is dependent on how much they're manufacturing. Therefore, these companies will not see the weather adjustment on their bills.

In all, Roanoke Gas will collect about $430,000 from the new charge. Of that, about $275,000 will come from residential customers.

Had Roanoke Gas not billed its customers this new charge, it would have taken "a pretty big hit," said John Williamson, president of RGC Resources Co., parent of Roanoke Gas.

The company's gross revenue was about $16 million for the year, down about $1 million because of the warmer winter months.

The charge definitely raises prices, said Irene Leech, president of the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. But considering the volatile swings in the natural gas market, the weather adjustment charge is the lesser of two evils for consumers.

"The other choice would have been a huge increase," Leech said.

A complex formula, approved by the SCC and Roanoke Gas, determines the weather adjustment charge.

The winter of 2004-05 was an abnormally mild winter, said Roanoke Gas. The overall result for the year was that the weather was 12 percent warmer than normal.

Williamson, when asked why customers have to pay the extra charge when they have nothing to do with weather swings, said the cost of running the company doesn't go down when the weather is warmer than normal. "We don't fire employees when the weather is normal," he said. The distribution and transmission systems still need to operate.

Just last week, the SCC negotiated a rate case with Roanoke Gas. That agreement gives Roanoke Gas an additional $856,859 in revenue, a 0.99 percent increase.

Originally, the utility sought a rate increase that would have increased its annual revenue by about $1.1 million, or 1.31 percent.

Williamson said there is no correlation between that case and the weather adjustment charges.

"If we hadn't filed the rate case we would have still implemented the weather adjustment. And if we received the full amount that we requested, the $1.1 million, we still would have done this," Williamson said.

General rate increases are based on normal weather patterns.

The SCC said other utility commissions have approved these adjustments. In Virginia, at least two other companies, Virginia Natural Gas and Washington Gas, have already implemented weather adjustment charges. But they adjust their bills each month rather than tacking a one-time charge onto bills.

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