Beginning with the April billing cycle, Las Cruces Utilities’ (LCU) customers will notice a small increase in their monthly bills. LCU will begin to recover the costs from the historic “arctic freeze” of winter storm that affected the Southwest in mid-February. While the cold snap disrupted gas supplies throughout the region, the city-owned utility did not experience a loss of service but did experience the sudden price increases in gas commodity cost.
LCU will begin recovering the costs from the February freeze with the April billing cycle, marginally increasing the commodity cost for gas service on customer bills at a time when gas usage typically decreases in the Spring among residential customers, thus reducing gas usage and costs.
On the May bills, customers will see an Emergency Commodity Recovery Surcharge itemized on the gas billing portion on their utility bill. LCU is spreading the incremental cost increase over the next 24 to 36 months to lessen the impact to customers.
The extreme drop in temperature impacted Permian Basin gas production, causing natural gas supply disruption and spiking market prices to utilities. “We are finalizing the cost and invoice details with the suppliers and transportation pipeline from the mid-February cold snap.” said Jose Provencio, LCU deputy director Business Services. Provencio continued, “We are using all tools available to us to ensure minimal economic impact to our customers.”
LCU supplies gas to its customers as a pass-through cost without a mark-up or profit and the cost associated for the system to deliver the commodity to the customer’s service point (cost of service). The natural gas charges on monthly bills reflect both the costs.
For more information and updates, visit the LCU website or call customer service at 541-2111.