Peoples Energy letter

Paying bills can be aggravating enough without bastards trying to overcharge, so I'm writing Peoples Energy...BTW what I'd liked to be calling them has been toned down substancially...Cocksuckers

Natural Gas futures chart here
http://www.tfc-charts.w2d.com/chart/NG/27


To Peoples Energy and to whom it may concern:

Would you please explain to me how Peoples Energy can justify a gas charge rate of
$.87040 per therm for the month of December 2006, when the natural gas futures for
the same month averaged below $7.00 per decatherm or $.70 per therm.

Is there something I’m missing. Considering that the weather predictions were forecasting
above average temperatures, I find it absolutely remarkable that your purchasing agent was
not able to negociate a price below $.87040

And to offer insult to injury, where I find on your Peoples Energy invoice under Messages
the following and quote:
“Good news on lower gas costs. The gas charge for January is 84.55 cents per therm, which
is about 23% less than the gas charge of $1.10 per therm in January 2006.”
Seeming that natural gas futures have averaged approx. 65.00 cents per therm from January 1st through January 19th 2007, which is 19.55 cents per therm lower than 84.55, I do not find this
good news at all, in fact I find it reprehensible.

I have come to my own conclusions as to what is taking place here, which I need not share with
you at this time. If Peoples Energy would like to respond, please do so. It should be obvious
from the above figures, that I believe that I am being over charged and would appreciate your
consideration in lower both the December 2006 bill as well as January 2007 projected pricing.

Sincerely,

BTW...I'd like to know what you are being charged for Dec 2006 ...This company has a history of over charging customers

I would imagine the $0.17 extra is to cover expenses and their profit. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

That's only the per therm cost...there are a # of other charges on the bill
Delivery charge
Customer charge
Enviromental charge
Taxes [BTW does the government have a vested interest]

And under messages they have stated that the therm charge is the price they pay for natural gas.

Turn down the heat.

Actually, I wouldn't bother if it was merely a gas stove or drier, but the boiler is a different story.
As far as turning down the heat, it's kind of a catch 22, because if I do, the pipes/radiators get that much colder, so require more time to heat up.

I did turn the boiler thermastat down from 200 degrees to 165 degrees, because when the thermastat in the diningroom kicked on at 68-70 the rooms would heat up to 80-85 by the time the heat disipated from the radiators, even though the boiler turned off at 70

You should do stuff to limit the amount of power needed to keep your place warm. Insulation for the pipes (and the floors), double glazing, stuff like that, hell, wear more fucking clothes!

Any response from them?

That extra charges are probably what Johnny Fist said they were. Fuel will get more expensive and and get cheaper in waves, up and down for the rest of your life. Things get more expensive, costs more to run an operation, charge the customers more, that's how it works.

Here, it is fucking cold! Efficiancy is everything. And after listening to my parents and their friends bitch about this themselves, I can say that gas prices are monitored closely by all here.

Here are some ideas.

-Heat Pump
-Pellet Stove (Best investment my om ever made from what she says, it heats everything so well.)
-Electric all (stove, heat, etc.)

Electric heaters are more expensive to run than your furnace. They're nice for in the garage or something if you're working in the winter, but I wouldn't use them to try and lower my heating bill.

I put new windows and doors in my house a couple years ago. For the last two winters my heating bill has been roughly half of what it was before. By the end of this winter the money I spent on them will have been recovered in saved energy costs. I'll actually have gotten them for free, if you think about it. Next year they will be putting money in my pocket.

With the pellet stove, my mom spends about $300-$400 buying 1 ton of wood pellets. It lasts all winter, warms the whole house better, and is much cheaper to run than the propane furnace. It costs $850 per full tank fill-up to each time the tank runs empty, and when the furnace runs alone, my mom has to fill up 5 times a winter! That's $4000! It cost my mom $1500 to buy the stove, so one winter easily put more money on hand.

Another plus is that pellets leave very little waste. A weeks worth of pellet ashes=4 hours of burning wood in a woodstove.

Thought I might include that the place (I think I may have mentioned this earlier) is 2 floors. The furnace only kicks in when the pellet stove isn't running (which only happens when the thing is getting cleaned).

Last year, my mom bought a full tank of propane and it lasted through the summer well into late November. All it that was left to use was the stove an' oven.

We have a gas heater, which uses natural gas, and a gas stove/oven.
I only use the heater about 20 days a year, then only at night or early morning, if it's particularly cold, or if we have visitors, it still costs approx A$500 for all our gas needs.
We probably need airconditioning in the summer, more than heating in the winter.
As I get older, I prefer the cold weather, hot days can drain my energy far to quickly, these days.
It's time I invested in solar panels, to heat the water.

I've got under-floor heating.

It is fan-fucking-tastic!

Except when Shell forget to fill our oil up

Sooo an underground (floor) steam heating system? They work great.

Been there done that...including temp plastic over the windows

I sent it along with the invoice payment [should of added "under duress"]
Nothing yet, but I doubt they will...on previous phone conversations I found them to be cold as ice, concerning their demand for a approx $350.00 security fee and ignoring my record of on time payments to both Nicor Gas [previous provider] and ComEd electric, but they did apply the security depot toward resent bills with interest

Apparantly the chart pic failed or you'd see I was being conservative with $.70 it was closer $.65 average

This is about principal as much as cost...something Zibby might agree with
People's Energy forgave debt from some poor who couldn't meet last years usage as part of a settlement, but at who's expense...bit of PR work I think

The new space electric heater is actually much less costly, than the natural gas to run the boiler/radiator and I wish I had another right now or better the new kerosine radiator, which is suppose to be very efficient.
I wanted to cut out 25% of the circuit which runs up-stairs to 1 small radiator

I think Gene needs to come back for a visit this week...Tuuuuuundra

Here is a statement from SoCalgas
http://www.socalgas.com/residential/billing/#gasrates

About gas rates and how bills are calculated
How Gas rates are determined

Natural gas rates are made up of two primary charges:

Gas delivery service, which The Gas Company provides - the "delivery" (or "transmission") charge; and,
The cost of the natural gas itself -- which is reflected in the "procurement" charge.
Many people believe that The Gas Company produces natural gas, but we don't. For our residential and smaller business customers, we buy natural gas from producers and marketers at the best possible prices on the open market.

The wholesale gas prices we pay are based on market supply and demand. They're not marked up by The Gas Company, and are shown on your monthly bill as the "commodity charge."

The Gas Company's delivery service charge covers the costs of transporting natural gas through our pipeline system. It is approved annually by the California Public Utilities Commission and is not impacted by the price of natural gas.


Peoples Energy never responded and charged 84.44 cents per therm for 1/07
[It would appear to me that Peoples Energy policy would be something like this

SoCal gas for
January 1/01/2007 54.884 [Core Procurement Gas Price (Cents Per Therm)*]

Here's is Nicor's natural gas charge [another large Chicago supplier]
http://www.nicor.com/nsr/ncor%20es%20febru...;07%20final.pdf

Jan 07 $0.67 per therm
Feb 07 $0.72 per therm

While Peoples Energy/North Shore Gas has indicated it will be charging
Feb 07 $0.88.84 per therm

which they point out is 10% less than Feb 06...of course they FAIL to point out that the natural gas commodities were substantially higher last year and currently through Feb 07 have been trading approx. equivalent of under $0.78 and currently at $0.73

We get shafted by all the utility companies.
I had a problem with the electricity connection to the house, the hot water now has to be plugged in to the power at a regular socket.
I didn't get the supply fixed, because the bill is on average $110 less per qtr.
We still have all the hot water we need.

Lt's enough to make u green.