That’s our commitment, and we certainly think it’s something we can work through and learn about from this event.” “Our goal immediately is to make sure we’re looking for ways to lessen the impact on customers and spread it out over time, and we’ll also focus on learning from this and looking for opportunities to reinforce our system and other things we can do to make sure that, if these events occur again, we’re in a good position. “This event showed the value of planning, which really helped,” he said. Louis and the cost of natural gas created the disparity, a lesson the company would take into consideration as it prepares for the future. Carter said a recently-built pipeline in St. The western part of Spire’s service area is expected to see a 25 percent total increase to recoup the cost of the event, while the eastern section of Missouri is set to see 15 percent. “There’s a pretty universal theme that we’re all committed to finding ways to mitigate that impact on our customers that’s the important thing for us to focus on right now.” “In general, we felt like we were well-positioned for the weather event,” Carter said. Spire was among the utility companies advising customers to cut down on energy use during the storm to preserve both the supply and their monthly bills. Winter storms struck the midwest in February, forcing companies to initiate rolling blackouts and leaving parts of the state without power. “I think the impact on natural gas utilities and their customers is not yet fully understood so the intent is to open an investigatory docket to allow the commission, customers, and other stakeholders to have a clearer picture of what the cause and impacts of the cold weather event were.” “We’ve all heard about the unprecedented impact, but it wasn’t just the power sector that was affected by the event it was the heating sector as well,” Silvey said. PSC Chairman Ryan Silvey said the commission hoped for some perspective on the impact and fallout of the extreme weather event. Spire presented its plan alongside other gas companies at a Public Service Commission (PSC) workshop this week. “We don’t expect this to occur again within the timeframe, and natural gas prices are still low and stable, so it seemed like a reasonable approach to manage the challenges of this winter.” “If you’re looking at 15 or 25 percent as an annual number, we spread that out over three years and make it a 5 to 7 percent impact a year, that would be a remarkable outcome,” Carter told The Missouri Times. Scott Carter, president of Spire Missouri, said ratepayers would see an increase on their bills to compensate for the cold weather event starting in the fall, but the company plans to spread the cost over the next few years rather than increase rates all at once.
Utility companies, including Spire Missouri, are examining ways to dampen the impact of last month’s devastating winter storms on customers’ bills.
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