Wednesday, April 24, 2024 | St. Lawrence County, NY
The New York State Public Service Commission has announced that utilities providing natural gas service in the state have adequate supplies, delivery capacity, and storage inventory to satisfy …
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The New York State Public Service Commission has announced that utilities providing natural gas service in the state have adequate supplies, delivery capacity, and storage inventory to satisfy customer demand under severe winter conditions.
Customer bills in general are predicted to increase only slightly this winter; however, they remain much lower than what they were several years ago.
As part of the annual winter readiness review, PSC staff surveyed the arrangements utilities have made to obtain adequate supply to meet expected customer demands under severe winter conditions. And they reviewed the utilities’ compliance with PSC policy regarding gas purchasing.
Special attention was given by staff to the methods used by the utilities for gas price risk management efforts, including the use of hedges, such as storage gas and fixed price contracts, and financial incentives, such as futures and options.
Throughout the winter season, the PSC says it will monitor issues that could affect the utilities’ operations and their customers, such as weather and heating degree day data; storage inventory management; interstate pipeline operational issues; operational flow orders; utility operation issues; gas price levels and fluctuations; and customer interruptions.
As of Oct. 1, the price of flowing gas for the upcoming heating season, reported on the New York Mercantile Exchange, is projected to be higher than last year. Prices for the gas itself makes up between 25 to 45 percent of the customers' bill and as a result, total bills are expected to increase on average by slightly more than 3 percent, or about $6 a month during the heating season. But while average customer bills might be slightly higher than last year, bills are anticipated to be about 6 percent lower than the average over the previous three years.
In New York, there are about 3.9 million natural gas heating customers. About half of the households in the state use natural gas for heating purposes and residential customers constitute the majority of natural gas customers.
