COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (KRDO) – While millions of Texans were without power during last week’s winter storm, Colorado Springs Utilities reported everything was fine along the Front Range. Now, CSU is planning an emergency meeting on Wednesday as the cost of running generators had a huge impact on its annual natural gas budget last week.
According to a Colorado Springs spokesperson, Utilities told KRDO that CSU has now spent much of its entire annual natural gas funding on power generators.
CSU’s Natalie Eckhart says the extreme demand for electricity and natural gas from February 13-16 resulted in a spike in natural gas prices. While CSU saw market prices of around $ 2.50 / Dekatherm, the price shot up to nearly $ 200 / Dekatherm.
At the special meeting of the finance committee, officials said they spent an estimated $ 95 million over a four-day period when those natural gas prices skyrocketed. Usually it would be between $ 7-10 million.
Ultimately, however, the money for the increased costs has to come from somewhere. Eckhart said, “We are currently exploring alternatives for how we will continue to pass natural gas tariffs on to our customers.”
CSU leaders discussed three options about how customers will pay for the increase. The first would increase each customer’s natural gas costs by approximately $ 11.45 per month from April 2021 to the end of January 2023. The second would increase it by $ 18.10 per month through April 2022. The third would raise it to $ 36.43 a month, but only through the end of the year. In total, customers would have to pay about $ 300 more for gas alone.
However, not only natural gas costs have increased, but also electricity. CSU has also released cost estimates for how much customers will be charged for both rate increases. Option number one would add $ 48.47 to residential customers’ utility bills from April through the end of the year. Option two, which seems to be the most preferred, would add $ 25.03 to each bill through the end of April 2022. Finally, option three would add $ 16.21 to each bill through the end of January 2023. That total comes to about $ 385.
Colorado Springs City Council will decide which timeline goes into March.
This news comes after Gov. Jared Polis applauds an investigation by the Public Utilities Commission to understand utility planning. Polis said he believes customers should have the choice to cut power for a few hours or forgo “to avoid hundreds of dollars in additional utility costs.”
This is a story in development and we are working on getting more information. Check back regularly for updates.