City Council approved an increase to the electric and natural gas fuel rates Tuesday in response to the projected rise in natural gas prices this winter.
The new rates are effective Oct. 1, 2024.
Winter fuel costs
As a nonprofit, community-owned utility, Springs Utilities passes fuel costs - up or down - directly to customers four times a year (typically January, April, July, and October) through electric and natural gas fuel rates, called cost adjustments.
The total bill impact for the average residential customer bill is $8.71. Individual customer bill impacts vary depending on weather, household use and home efficiency.
Natural gas prices are expected to be higher this winter, compared to current prices, as a result of increased demand in colder months. This is driving up the electric and natural gas rates, which were previously significantly reduced to reflect the untypically low market prices in the spring and summer of 2024.
This is the first fuel rate increase since October 2022. Compared to other Front Range utilities, our electric rates will be an estimated 16% lower than average and natural gas would be 20% lower than average with the proposed rate changes.
Bill impact
The estimated monthly impact on a typical customer four-service bill would be as follows:
Electric cost adjustment
- Residential electric bill increase of $3.22 or 3.3%
- Commercial electric bill increase of $27.60 or 4.5%
- Industrial electric bill increase of $1,840.00 or 5.2%
Natural gas cost adjustment
- Residential natural gas bill increase of $5.49 or 15.9%
- Commercial natural gas bill increase of $113.46 or 25.1%
- Industrial natural gas bill increase of $1,134.60 or 26.4%
To continue protecting customers from changes in the market, we buy natural gas at lower rates when demand isn’t as high and use other long-range tools to lock in a portion of supply at lower prices.
Customer assistance
In Colorado, customers use up to six times more natural gas in the winter than other times of the year for heating. This results in higher winter bills. Several programs are in place to help customers, including:
