Heating bills are up around Kansas City — but not just because of those extra cold days
Little Blue Valley resident David Alumbaugh just received a heating bill totaling over $600.
While he has closed off the upper floor of his house to conserve heat, he told The Star that lowering the temperature on the first floor isn’t an option as he cares for his 94-year-old father.
“A $600 bill for one month is going to be quite a strain on the finances,” he said. Alumbaugh is self-employed, and provides the only income keeping himself and his father afloat.
His experience is not unique: Kansas City residents across the metro are noticing rate increases on their natural gas bills. Last month’s cold snap brought sub-zero temperatures, but winter weather isn’t the only cause of rising heating bills. In fact, on the Missouri side of the state line, weather changes don’t directly impact the rates customers pay for natural gas at all.
There are a variety of factors causing heating bills to go up. Here’s a look at how they may be affecting your budget.
Increased natural gas usage
When it’s cold, you’re likely to run your heater more. Furnaces and water heaters also need to use more gas to achieve the same temperatures, even if you don’t turn the thermostat up. These factors mean that customers simply use more gas during chilly months, causing their bills to rise.
“Weather can impact a customer’s bill due to usage,” Spire spokesperson Jason Merrill wrote in an email to The Star. “If a person uses gas to heat their home, they typically use more energy when it is colder and, in turn, using more energy would impact a customer’s bill.”
Your gas usage is likely measured in either CCF, a unit representing 100 cubic feet of gas, or Mcf, representing 1,000 cubic feet. If your usage spiked recently, it could be to blame for your higher bills.
Some are taking steps to reduce their gas usage at home by seeking other methods of warmth. That’s the case for Michele McFarland, a Marlborough Heights resident who recently got a bill just under $200 to heat her 700-square-foot apartment.
“To combat the rising costs we turn the thermostat down to 65 at night, bring the animals in the master bedroom with a ceramic heater on low, and have sealed doors from top to bottom,” McFarland told The Star via social media.
While her natural gas bills used to be manageable, she said she now finds herself dressing in warm clothes and huddling under blankets to lower her heating costs.
Three natural gas companies serve the Kansas City area: Spire covers the Missouri side of the metro, while Atmos Energy and Kansas Gas Service serve the Kansas side. To find out how much gas you used during the most recent billing cycle, check the following number:
Spire customers: the “Usage” line under the “Natural Gas Cost” section of your bill
Kansas Gas Service customers: the number beneath “Mcf Billed” at the bottom of your bill
Atmos Energy customers: the “Actual Usage in CCF” in the box on page two of your bill labeled “Your Billing Detail Information”
If your usage is totally out of line with the normal amount of gas you use, there’s a chance that your meter has read your gas usage incorrectly. If your usage looks wrong, spokespeople from all three companies recommended contacting your provider for further options.
“If in a rare instance a meter is incorrect, we would do a billing adjustment of a credit or debit depending on the customer’s situation,” Merrill told The Star. Spire’s customer service number for western Missouri is 800-582-1234.
Here are some methods that Spire suggests to decrease your natural gas usage at home.
Higher rates on the gas you use
Even if your natural gas usage is at a typical level, you are likely still paying more than you did in past months and years. That’s because the rates that local companies charge their customers have been increasing recently.
Alumbaugh told The Star that he did use more gas during this last billing cycle than during the same cycle a year earlier: 434 CCF up from 354 CCF. But while his gas usage rose by around 23%, his bill rose by almost 44% — from $423.97 last year to $609.81 now.
That’s because Spire customers like Alumbaugh have seen three rate increases on their bills in the past two months alone.
Spire
The rate charged for natural gas itself rose in November, costing the average customer in the western half of Missouri an extra $8.14 a month on average. It then went up again last Thursday, Jan. 19, raising bills by $9.54 per month on average.
A Spire rate case resolved in November and enacted in December also added an average of $4.76 per month to the delivery portion of customers’ bills. That’s a total of $22.44 extra per month for the average customer — an increase likely to be higher in the winter and lower in the summer.
Overall, these price hikes will total an additional $269.28 per year for the average customer, according to Spire’s estimates.
Atmos Energy
Atmos Energy is currently asking the Kansas Corporation Commission for an extra $83 million in revenue, which would increase customers’ bills by an estimated $5.60 per month. In October, the commission approved a rate increase that added an average of $5.78 per month to bills as a way for Atmos to recoup costs from Winter Storm Uri.
Kansas Gas Service
In December, Kansas Gas Service customers saw a new line item added to their bills called the “Winter Event Securitized Cost.” This rider is meant to help the company recoup costs from winter storm Uri. It increased bills by an estimated $5.64 per month.
Kansas Gas Service also charges customers a fluctuating rate for natural gas based on what the company itself pays. While this rate does not include a markup, higher wholesale prices during December’s cold snap may be reflected on your bill this month. This is the fifth line of your bill, labeled “Cost of Gas.”
Maintenance and efficiency issues
It’s important to make sure your natural gas equipment is in good working order to ensure you aren’t using any unnecessary gas. One simple step is to change your furnace filter often.
“A clean filter can lower energy consumption by 5% to 15%,” Kansas Gas Service spokesperson Dawn Tripp wrote in an email to the Star. “Dirty filters cost more to use and overwork the equipment.” You can buy filters at many hardware and home improvement stores.
Some Kansas City residents have also shared that improving their home’s energy efficiency has helped combat the loss of heat and lowered their natural gas bills. Here are some tips on making your home more energy efficient this winter.
How else can cold weather impact gas bills?
Weather changes are factored into the rates charges to customers in a few ways. In Kansas, the wholesale price of natural gas that is passed along to customers generally rises when it is cold outside due to higher demand for heating.
“Atmos Energy does not set the commodity price of natural gas; we purchase the gas and supply it to customers,” said Atmos Energy spokesperson Aaron Bishop. “There is no profit added to this cost and like other commodities it is affected by many factors both nationally and globally. This price, displayed as ‘PGA’ on Atmos Energy customer bills, is higher this year.”
Utility companies in both states also have an additional charge called the WNA or WNAR, which stands for Weather Normalization Adjustment (Rider). Here are the current WNA rates for the three gas companies in the metro:
Kansas Gas Service: around $0.18 per Mcf
Atmos Energy: around $0.13 per Mcf
Spire: around $0.14 per Mcf
This rate changes only once a year to account for the previous winter’s temperatures. That means we won’t know the full impact of December’s cold snap until next fall.
Do you have more questions about utility affordability in the metro? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
