Periodically, your rates are adjusted to reflect changes in the market price. The adjustment includes accounting for any accumulated differences between what the utility had to pay for gas and what it collected from customers. The table below shows how the recent increases in gas prices will affect your bill for a typical winter month. The comparison is between last year's bill and this year's. The main factor in driving up wholesale natural gas supplies is increased demand.
More people use natural gas to heat their homes.
More gas is being used to generate electricity. New pipelines have opened, making it easier to transport Canadian gas to the midwest where demand is very high. All these factors drive up prices. No, the way your electric utility acquires electricity differs signicantly from the way natural gas is acquired. While a wholesale electricity market has emerged, your utility still owns a significant amount of its own electricity production.