With energy prices rising, GRU working to help customers manage usage, stabilize bills
Last May, Gainesville Regional Utilities paid an average of $3.60 per MMBtu for the natural gas we use to generate the electricity that powers our homes and businesses. As costs continue to rise, GRU just paid more than $9 for the same amount of fuel, and it may go even higher in coming months.
Spikes like this are rare and usually associated with natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or, more recently, the 2021 Texas freeze. The current global increase in natural gas prices was partially initiated by COVID-related supply and demand issues and then prolonged by the conflict in Ukraine.
Unfortunately, it has caused higher-than-anticipated electric bills across the country, and GRU is far from immune to these pressures. As a result, we have continually increased pass-through fuel charges since November to keep up with skyrocketing costs.
While these unexpected increases continue to burden utility customers across the nation, we are working here at home to help GRU customers manage usage and stabilize bills. I encourage you to visit gru.com/energysavers for easy-to-adopt tips that can make a difference in your bill or gru.com/saveenergy for additional tips and online resources such as our Home Energy Advisory Tool, which breaks down your energy usage and identifies ways to save.
In addition to these resources, GRU residential electric customers can schedule a free in-home energy survey with one of our conservation analysts. We will check your home's windows, doors, ductwork, insulation, appliances and other equipment and offer customized tips to improve efficiency. You can schedule a survey by calling 352-393-1460.
In the beginning of May, we also expanded our successful Low-income Energy-Efficiency Program, known as LEEPplus. The program has been around since 2007 and has helped more than 1,800 customers afford energy-saving home upgrades, such as new AC units, water heaters and insulation.
With a $1.9 million infusion of American Rescue Plan Act funds, we have opened the program to renters, increased the amount we can spend per home and tweaked income guidelines, so moderate-income customers can now take advantage as well. You can find out more at gru.com/LEEP.
While we remain focused on the immediate needs of GRU customers by promoting these programs, tips and services, our experts also continue to prepare for future energy demands. Thanks to years of excellent management and foresight, GRU has a diverse fuel mix, which at least gives us more options when one source spikes.
We anticipate further expanding that mix in the not-too-distant future thanks to a 50-megawatt contract to purchase solar power. This will eventually give GRU another competitively priced energy source.
Finally, GRU is in the process of beginning an integrated resource plan, or IRP. An IRP is a study that helps determine how a utility will meet future power requirements.
This plan will help establish, among other things, a realistic path toward achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years. As the IRP takes shape, we will be embarking on a community-wide public-engagement initiative to give you a voice in the outcome.
I am excited to see what comes from this new process and how our experts will use this information to continue providing safe and reliable utility services, the true hallmarks of our utility. But please know that I am also sympathetic to the realities some GRU customers face as mid-90-degree days become the norm and fuel prices continue to rise.
If you are experiencing a financial hardship, please call our customer service department at 352-334-3434 to see if we can help.
Tony Cunningham is interim general manager of GRU.
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Tony Cunningham: GRU helping customers with rising energy costs
