Winter heating bills for Central Hudson’s residential natural gas heating customers are, on average, nearly 28 percent lower than those of last year, and residential electric bills are nearly 14 percent lower, thanks to warmer seasonal temperatures that reduced both consumption and commodity costs for natural gas and electricity.

“The combination of lower usage and reduced market prices for natural gas and electricity resulted in substantially lower bills this winter for our customers,” said Charles A. Freni, Senior Vice President of Customer Services for Central Hudson. “Commodity prices for natural gas and electricity generally rise and fall with supply and demand, and with less consumption customers are seeing the benefit of lower usage and lower prices with much lower bills as compared to those of last winter,” he said. “The total billed unit price natural gas is at its lowest in more than 10 years, and for electricity nearly five years.”

From November through March, supply prices for natural gas were nearly 30 percent less than those of last year and 23 percent less for electricity, reducing supply charges on bills. In addition, warmer weather lowered average customer usage for natural gas by 22 percent and for electricity by 8 percent, as heating degree days (a measure of winter temperature) were 23 percent less than last year and 19 percent less than a normal year.

“Customers should also take advantage of Central Hudson’s energy efficiency programs, to further manage energy bills in the future,” said Freni. “For example, rebates of up to $600 and $700 on the installation of high-efficiency heat pumps and gas heating systems, respectively, and up to $600 for whole house air sealing are available to our customers,” he said.

Central Hudson serves 300,000 electric and 74,000 natural gas customers in the Mid-Hudson Valley region. Natural gas is a clean, efficient, versatile and dependable domestic energy resource, produces fewer emissions than other fuels, and is used to heat more homes nationwide than all other heating fuels combined. To learn more about natural gas and electric service, and Central Hudson’s energy efficiency programs, visit www.CentralHudson.com.

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