Due to the severe weather in the Chicago Area during January 2014, the price of power quadrupled. Fortunately there was no accompanying shortage and, while the cost of power increased, the grid and the generation met everyone’s demand.

The wholesale costs for January 2014 for deliveries into the Tri-State (Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan) area:

  • Natural gas went from about $4.40 to nearly $18.00
  • Electricity settled at over $0.75, where it is normally around $.035

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Realgy will recover the costs related to this short-term power cost increase with a onetime Real-Time Settlement charge on electric bills. This charge covers only the additional costs Realgy incurred for the market power we had to purchase to cover the extreme costs associated during this period. It will appear on either your January or February bills. By contrast, the utility will eventually raise rates (usually limited to two times a year) to cover their costs during this event.

Natural gas bills will look the same but you will notice the bill is higher. While Realgy’s base rate remains low the cost related to each utilities supply management practices imposed by Utility will increase our costs. Each utility limits what we can display on the bill so we can only display on our web site or in your storage report.

The breadth of Realgy’s experience extends back to the last time such an extreme weather event happened, which was 20 years ago. That is why Realgy offers the services we do to help protect our customers. Even though the market wholesale price in Chicago for natural gas and electricity jumped two to four times, Realgy’s average customer will pay less than a 40% increase for January gas and electricity.

Realgy does three things to consistently protect our customers from normal and extreme weather events:

  1. Managed Plan–a consistent low price to save money compared to Utility
  2. Fixed Price–through PriceWatchTM, this year (like the last three years) the Realgy PriceWatchTM Fixed Price was below the average winter price
  3. Storage (except for Michigan)–Winter gas at Summer Prices is a great way to prepay for winter gas with the added benefit that you do so at the summer prices.

Realgy will continue to do everything possible to continue to meet our customer’s expectations to save money on energy and rely on Realgy.

If you did not receive your PriceWatchTM notice this year, now is a good time to update your contact information with Realgy. You can do this by going to realgyenergyservices.com and filling out the Customer Contact Info Update Form.