The APGA Research Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that serves as the “bank” for public gas system (PGS) voluntary R&D contributions. The Foundation provides PGSs their own organization to collect and allocate voluntary dollars to R&D important to public gas customers. The Foundation identifies and prioritizes research projects important to contributing PGSs and ensures that project deliverables are tracked and met. Those deliverables always include commercialization prospects, values and schedules.

Such R&D was supported by a federal mandatory R&D surcharge, in effect from the mid 1970's to August 2004. This surcharge was collected by each PGS's pipeline supplier as part of transportation cost and remitted by the pipeline to the Gas Research Institute (GRI). The GRI used those R&D dollars to support important operational and end-use R&D having an 8 to 1 benefit-to-cost ratio. The Foundation, as the steward of PGS voluntary contributions, is committed to match or improve that benefit ratio.

The mandatory federal R&D surcharge was 1.74 cents/dth in 1998 and stepped down to .56 cents/dth in 2004.

As the federal surcharge stepped down from 1998 to 2004, APGA members made up the difference each year with an ever larger contribution of voluntary dollars to support beneficial R&D. In 2004, APGA member voluntary R&D dollars reached just over $1million. The ending of the federal surcharge was the primary catalyst for creation of the Foundation.

On February 10, 2004, the APGA Research Foundation (APGARF) was created by vote of the Boards of APGA and the new Foundation The Foundation is the now the sole entity serving the R&D needs of public gas systems and customers.

In its short life, the Foundation has just over 150 voluntary system investors, including all systems that are part of the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia and the Florida Gas Utility. Every Foundation investor has a voice in how their voluntary R&D investments are spent.

All public gas systems are invited to become Foundation Investors. Systems are encouraged to invest 2.00 cents/dth/year, the typical small customer surcharge level under the Federal mandatory surcharge between 1976 and 1998 before voluntary supplements were necessary. This voluntary investment could be made through a direct payment to the Foundation as systems are no longer required to use their gas supplier as a collection agent. Through a new agreement with a system's gas supplier, the supplier could collect the R&D investment as part of gas cost and remit those dollars to the Foundation.

Systems are free to determine their own level of voluntary Foundation investment, whether above or below or 2.00 cents/dth/yr. On the below PDF form, systems are asked to insert their preferred multiplier in the investment calculation and choose their desired billing frequency.