MINNEAPOLIS — About 370,000 CenterPoint Energy customers will get a small refund.

The utility experimented with a tiered rate system that was designed to reward customers who used less natural gas. In some cases, a customer’s monthly meter reading period exceeded 32 days. That gave them an artificially high gas bill under the program, which had five escalating price tiers.

The company says a one-time refund will average $3.45 per customer and will show up on the next bill.

CenterPoint suspended the tiered program last October.