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2021 Winter Weather Event – Letter

Mar 13, 2021

To Our Valued Customers:

We appreciate the community’s efforts to conserve energy during the extreme winter weather event our area experienced in February. The conservation steps you took lessened the impact the storm had on all our neighbors.

Because this weather event impacted the entire Midwest, from as far south as Texas to north of the Canadian border, supply of natural gas was in critical demand. To worsen the situation, transportation of natural gas was also severely impacted by the frigid temperatures. As the supply decreased, and the demand increased, we saw record high natural gas prices. City Utilities’ customers were mostly protected by these extreme prices through natural gas purchased and stored ahead of time and fixed-priced contracts. However, we still had to purchase some historically high-priced natural gas to meet customers’ needs as temperatures dropped below zero for several days in a row.

City Utilities would normally be required to recover this unanticipated increase in natural gas costs over the next six months. However, due to the unprecedented increase in the price of natural gas during February, the Board of Public Utilities and City Council have agreed to extend the recovery period for such costs to two years. This means that the monthly bill impact to you will be lessened. Beginning April 2021, the cost of natural gas will include an additional amount of approximately 20 cents per
therm and will continue for 24 months.

You can control how much this impacts your bill individually by continuing to use natural gas efficiently. In addition, City Utilities offers a variety of rebates to help you save energy and money all year long. Be sure to check them out on our website, cityutilities.net/save.

City Utilities is here to work with you. We know this additional cost could create a hardship for your household. If you need additional time to pay, please contact one of our Customer Service representatives at (417) 863-9000 to work out a payment plan. You can find more information on the winter weather event and frequently asked questions at www.cityutilities.net.

Sincerely,

Gary Gibson

Gary Gibson
General Manager-CEO
City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri