Warm weather, lower heating bills

Shelby County residents may see lower heating bills than usual this winter due to unseasonably warm weather and lower natural gas prices.

Wednesday, Shelbyville saw highs of 63 degrees and today's high could be of 65. It's a spring-like atmosphere in one of Indiana's traditionally coldest months, where temperatures typically averaged near a high of 39 degrees.

November, December and January all have seen some out-of-place warm days this winter.

"It's true that customers' electric bills do track with outdoor temperatures," said Lew Middleton, an Indiana-based a spokesman for Duke Energy. Duke Energy supplies electricity for much of Shelbyville.

Electrical bills for this winter season are lower than last year, he said, because consumers are using less electricity. For an average consumer, more than half of total energy costs are for heating and cooling.

The average Indiana Duke residential customer used about 14 percent less electricity in December 2011 than in December 2010. That caused an average of a 10 percent drop in December 2011 residential bills compared to December 2010, Middleton said.

Other factors, beside the weather, also play a role in determining an electric bill, such as expensive environmental regulations and the prices of coal and natural gas.

"In about the last 10 years, Duke Energy, in its five state service area, has spent $5 billion to install pollution control equipment on its power plants," Middleton said. "About half of that amount has been spent on our Indiana power plants."

Duke owns several coal-powered plants here, so 94 percent of Duke Indiana energy comes from coal, whose prices will fluctuate, he said.

David Toll, vice president for consumer services at RushShelby Energy, which provides service to much of rural Shelby County, also said bills have been lower than last year.

"The weather's warmer, heating units aren't running as much," he said. "This time last year we had an ice storm. It was really cold out."

Toll said RushShelby raised prices between 3 percent and 3½ percent because the cost of electricity is higher. That rate was set in October and went into effect in January, he said.

While electricity costs are going up, natural gas costs are nearing a 10-year low.

Chase Kelley, a spokeswoman for Vectren, a natural gas utility that also provides service in Shelby County, said the company expected prices to be low.

"We did projections in October," she said.

Energy bills were expected to come to about $570 over a five-month period, continuing a drop in prices over the past few years. Low prices, coupled with the warm weather, has dropped prices even more, she said.

Kelley said prices may be in the $500 to $530 range.

She blamed the decrease on an increase in production because of shale oil mining.

"It's kind of changed the game when it comes to how affordable natural gas has become," she said.

All comments will be reviewed prior to being posted. The following is criteria editors will follow in deeming comments suitable for posting. The newspaper reserves the right to not publish any comment for any reason and is not responsible for the content of any comment that posts. If you have a question as to why your comment was not posted, please e-mail Editor Andrea Smithson at asmithson@shelbynews.com

KEEP IT CLEAN: Avoid language that is obscene, vulgar, lewd or sexually-oriented. If you can't control yourself, it won't post.
DON'T THREATEN: No one should feel that they may be harmed in any way.
BE TRUTHFUL: Don't lie about anyone or anything.
BE NICE: No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person. Insults and name calling will not be tolerated.
TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK: And forgive people for their spelling errors.
SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW: Give us your eyewitness accounts, background, observations and history. What more do you want to know about the story?
STAY FOCUSED: Ask questions. Keep on the story's topic.
REMEMBER: Let's maintain a culture of respect.

Beginning with stories published on the Web site Thursday, March 25, 2010, all comments will be reviewed prior to being posted. The following is criteria The Shelbyville News will follow in deeming comments suitable for posting. The Shelbyville News reserves the right to not publish any comment for any reason and is not responsible for the content of any comment that posts. If you have a question as to why your comment was not posted, please e-mail Editor Andrea Smithson at asmithson@shelbynews.com

Read more from the original source:
Warm weather, lower heating bills