Industry officials, California Public Utilities Commission discuss winter gas prices

Utility regulators are already looking ahead to California’s winter in an effort to determine if natural gas prices will spike into record territory like last year.

Customer bills soared in January when natural gas prices in those markets climbed into record territory. The cost of the commodity more than doubled from the year before.In San Diego, the price of a thermal unit, used to measure a specific quantity of natural gas, hit $5.11 in January. That was more than twice the price the year before.“Currently there’s much more supply availability in the west compared to last year,” said Ray Sasaki of Southern California Gas, a Sempra Energy subsidiary.

“It is difficult to quantify, but the main point is that these uncertainties are translating into elevated prices,” Sasaki saidBut national observers are optimistic that bills will not rise at the same pace this year as they did last year.“They are up by 9% percent overall, but in the West they’re up by 14%,” said Mark Wolfe, the executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

“Families are saving, maybe, some money on their natural gas bill. They still have to deal with outstanding cooling bills from summer. And many are behind,” Wolfe said.

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