CFU to Ease Customer Financial Impact from February Event
Posted
on Friday, March 26, 2021
A February winter storm produced record low temperatures across the United States and disrupted normal natural gas and electric markets. CFU is taking steps to ease customer financial impacts from the February weather event.
Extremely cold temperatures led to increased demand for electricity and natural gas used to heat homes and businesses. Natural gas wells froze in the southern United States, limiting supply. In addition, wind turbines and power plants in the south also experienced weather-related failures.
CFU’s natural gas and electric systems held strong during the extreme weather and customers did not experience any service outages. The weather did cause customers to use more natural gas and electricity than normal. In addition, the price utilities pay to buy energy to supply to customers increased significantly.
Like many utilities, CFU has variable charges on utility bills that reflect the market price of gas and electricity. Those charges fluctuate up and down based on the wholesale price CFU pays for the energy it provides to customers.
CFU will spread utility bill adjustments due to extra usage and increased energy costs over time.
The Gas Utility will spread the financial impact of this event over twelve months. By distributing the increased costs over a year, we hope to ease the burden for our customers. Impacted customers will receive a letter in April with more detailed information once bill adjustments have been calculated. Natural gas bill adjustments will likely begin in April.
Electric bill impacts from this event will be spread over two months. Adjustments began in March.
Bill impacts will vary based on how much energy you used in February.
If you would like more information about natural gas and electric prices from the February weather event, please contact CFU Customer Service at 319-268-5280 or visit cfu.net/EnergyAdjustments.
We encourage any customer facing financial hardship to call Customer Service at 319-268-5281. There are resources available to help.