I can’t believe that I’m already watching white rain drops fall from the sky and accumulate on the roof of my car. Are you kidding me? Apparently not. So with thoughts of chestnuts roasting over an open fire, I thought it was a good time to share information that the City has received regarding the price of fuel (gas and electric) that we’ll be using to keep warm this winter.
This was a tough summer for gas at the pumps but the outlook for natural gas costs is better. As a NOPEC community, gas customers in Kent have a chance to buy gas in greater quantities and at discounted prices. Overall NOPEC has a good track for record beating retail gas prices by buying wholesale and it looks like they’ve been able to lock down very reasonable prices for this winter as well.
Here’s a note from our NOPEC representatives:
TO ALL DEO MEMBER NOPEC COMMUNITIES – October 27, 2008 GAS PURCHASES – DEO AREA
Dear NOPEC representative:
I am very pleased to announce to you that NOPEC has been able to purchase the cheapest gas we have purchased since we have been receiving gas from Dominion Retail. We have now extended our purchases in the Dominion East Ohio area from June 2009 through August 2009, at the rate of $9.59 mcf.
NOPEC is very excited about these rates because this puts our member communities in great shape through next summer. Also, the U.S. Department of Energy’s prediction is that natural gas prices during the winter in Ohio will be up 17% from last year. NOPEC’s price for this winter in the DEO area is up seven and one half percent (7.5%) from last year and our price next summer in the DEO area will be 15% less than this summer.
Gas update as of October 21, 2008 – DEO area
September, 2008 – $11.24/mcf
October and November, 2008 – $10.98/mcf
December, 2008-May, 2009 – $10.88/mcf
June, 2009 – August, 2009 – $9.59/mcf
If you’ve got baseboard heat in your home, electric bills seem to be a different story. NOPEC is fighting a rate hike from First Energy on their customers behalf (all 600,000 of them) and as you read the following memorandum it sounds like an uphill battle. It looks like as customers we’re already losing an agreed upon 5% price discount and on top of that First Energy is raising the rates.