WASHINGTON — Washington Gas has filed an application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission for a residential customer rate increase.

The utility says the rate increase is necessary to recover the costs of providing service in Virginia and to earn its allowed rate of return.

The base rate increase, if approved, would be $22.9 million in new revenue, or approximately an additional $2.10 a month on a typical residential customer’s bill. It represents a 3 percent increase on residential customer total gas bills.

Washington Gas expects the new rates to become effective in January 2019. The VSCC approved another rate increase for Washington Gas in Virginia in September 2017.

In May, Washington Gas applied for a residential rate increase for its Maryland customers.

Washington Gas lowered bills earlier this year by an average of about $2 a month by passing on federal corporate income tax savings as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Last month, Canadian utility AltaGas completed its $6.4 billion acquisition of Washington Gas parent company WGL Holdings.