Peoples Gas customers will have a little more money in their pockets thanks to a billing credit that is a result of the utility being acquired early this year.

Most of Peoples' 690,000 customers in Pennsylvania will receive a one-time credit of $20.22, but 60,000 customers in Butler who are former customers of T.W. Phillips Gas and Oil will receive a $29.27 credit.

The credits were negotiated as a customer benefit in Essential Utilities' $4.27 million acquisition of Peoples in March, said Peoples spokesman Barry Kukovich.

“It's a one-time bill credit. It was negotiated as part of the transaction between the two companies and Public Utility Commission,” Kukovich said.

The credits will be noted on customer bills in the current billing cycle. Peoples sends bills to 70,000 customers a day.

“People should be getting it now,” Kukovich said.

Essential, which changed its name from Aqua America on Feb. 3, committed to $23 million in rate credits for customers as part of the regulatory approval for the Peoples transaction.

Aside from the credit, there will be no other impact to customer bills as a result of the transaction, according to Essential.

Essential is one of the largest publicly traded water, wastewater and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving about 5 million people in 10 states under the Aqua and Peoples brands.

Essential has committed to no job loss at its utilities as a result of the acquisition and is in discussion to add employees and contractors to accelerate replacement of main gas lines in the Pittsburgh region. The combined company plans to replace nearly 3,000 miles of aged natural gas mains over 15 years in its service areas across the country.