Hamm v. Public Service Commission

Finney, Judge:

This is an appeal from a circuit court order reversing and remanding orders of the South Carolina Public Service Commission, which permitted a levelized surcharge based upon a combination of both the volumetric and deficiency-based systems to recover from retail gas customers take-or-pay charges incurred at the wholesale level. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

To compensate the wholesaler for risks involved in the merchandising of natural gas, the retailer agrees to take, or pay for if not taken, a minimum quantity of gas. These take-or-pay (TOP) provisions operate to…