Lincoln, NE – August 13, 2021 – Imagine being able to pay the same price for a gallon of gasoline for a year – no matter how much oil prices fluctuate. Just like gasoline, natural gas costs are market based.
Black Hills Energy offers select customers in eastern Nebraska a similar opportunity through its Annual Price Option (APO) program, which allows customers to lock in their per-therm price of natural gas for one year.
Residential customers can enroll in APO beginning Aug. 16 at www.annualpriceoption.com or by calling 800-753-7509. Enrollment ends Oct. 8, 2021, or when 12,000 customers have enrolled – whichever comes first. The locked-in commodity price will be in effect from Nov. 1, 2021, through Oct. 31, 2022. Since there is no automatic rollover year-to-year, customers must re-enroll if they’d like to remain in the APO program.
“We’ve all experienced a good deal of uncertainty in the last year or so. This program is helpful for customers who are looking for more consistency and predictability in their budgets, especially during cold winter months,” said Kevin Jarosz, Black Hills Energy’s vice president of operations in Nebraska. “Just like any commodity, supply and demand influence the market price for natural gas. By signing up for the Annual Price Option, you’ll know what price you’ll pay, regardless of what the market does.”
Customers’ bills can still fluctuate due to weather and how much natural gas they use, as well as the efficiency of their natural gas appliances and how well their home is weatherized.
Annual Price Option isn’t available to former SourceGas customers. These customers can enroll in the Choice Gas program each spring.
Customers who don’t wish to participate in APO will continue to be billed using Black Hills Energy’s traditional portfolio rate. The price of traditional billing will fluctuate with market conditions.
All Black Hills Energy customers are welcome to sign up for Budget Billing. This program provides stabilized monthly billing, which helps avoid spikes during the peak of heating season.
The 2021-22 APO price per therm is $0.52797, compared to the 2020-21 price of $0.42970.*