CLEVELAND, Ohio — The math Columbia Gas of Ohio uses to set its monthly Standard Choice Offer is changing ever-so-slightly April 1.
The uptick is the result of a state-monitored auction held this week to choose the least-cost suppliers for Columbia customers who do not want to sign individual contracts with suppliers.
Columbia currently adds $0.143 to the commodity price of gas set monthly on the New York Mercantile Exchange, or NYMEX.
This week’s auction setting the “adder” from April 1 to March 31, 2018, resulted in a price of $0.145. That’s the amount Columbia will add to the monthly NYMEX price, set at the end of each month.
For example, the February NYMEX commodity price closed at $3.391 per thousand cubic feet, or $0.3391 per hundred cubic feet, which is the quantity of gas at which Columbia’s prices are sold.
Columbia’s Standard Choice price this month is therefore determined by adding $0.143 to $0.3391, resulting in the sum of $0.4821 per 100 cubic feet, or 1 Ccf.
Beginning April 1, Columbia will add $0.145 to the monthly NYMEX price. Consumers can review the math, which is less complicated than it looks, at the Energy Choice site maintained by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
The site also lists the contract prices offered by the suppliers for customers who want to pay exactly the same rate every month, or who believe allowing an independent supplier to set monthly rates would be better.
The SCO monthly rates are typically less than supplier monthly rates, but some suppliers offer lower promotional rates. Long-term fixed rates are higher because they serve as insurance to protect a buyer from a winter price-spike. These contracts often include a hefty fee for consumers who want to cancel them early.
Most long-term contracts automatically become monthly contracts, often with much higher rates, at the end of the contract, and therefore consumers must pay attention to the expiration month. Once out of a contract, a consumer can return to Columbia’s Standard Choice Offer with a phone call to Columbia.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
