Lower fixed rates offered on natural-gas contracts
Friday, September 14, 2007
John Funk Plain Dealer Reporter
Fall is in the air -- and offers from gas marketers are in your mailbox.
Many marketers are offering the fuel at a one-year fixed-price contract for about $10 per 1,000 cubic feet, or $1 per hundred cubic feet.
That includes the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, or NOPEC, which has negotiated a price of $9.99 for consumers in Dominion territory but is still working on a contract with its supplier, Dominion Retail, for consumers where Columbia Gas of Ohio delivers the gas.
Dominion Retail, the cousin of the utility Dominion East Ohio gas company, also markets directly to the public as Dominion East Ohio Energy.
In a mail campaign, the company is trumpeting $10.49 to homes in Dominion territory and a higher price for those in towns served by Columbia Gas of Ohio. It's among the highest one-year fixed price contracts available. (See cleveland.com/heating or puco.ohio.gov for marketers offering lower rates.)
If you are among the 150,000 people who work for, or own, one of the 13,000 businesses that are members of the Greater Cleveland Partnership's Council of Smaller Enterprises, or COSE, in Dominion's territory, there is an even lower price.
COSE, working with Integrys Energy Services, offers a fixed-rate, one-year contract of $9.25 to COSE companies and their employees. You will need your company's COSE identification number.
COSE also offers discounts on all of Integrys' contracts, including the monthly variable that is priced off commodity prices.
For more information, go to the COSE page on the Integrys Web site: integrysenergy.com/COSE. The plan adds $1.22 to the closing monthly price of natural gas on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That rate for the next 30 days is $6.65 per Mcf.
The question many consumers are wrestling with for the second consecutive year is whether to take that NYMEX-based variable, a fixed price or just stay with Dominion, the utility, which offers a monthly variable of $1.44 over the NYMEX closing.
The experts, including the U.S. Department of Energy, say that gas stored away for winter is matching last year's record-breaking amounts - and could set new records.
Wholesale gas prices are likely to be moderate for the year, even with a normal winter. A few long-range forecasts see a mild winter - and even lower wholesale prices.
The upshot? If you can afford to risk a high gas bill for a month or two, take the variable. But if you want certainty, lock into a fixed - and consider the slightly higher rate an insurance premium.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
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