Electric, Gas Bills Shock Ratepayers

<a href=www.newsday.com>Newsday.com By Tom McGinty Staff Writer April 2, 2003, 7:30 PM EST

A March 24 notice from the Long Island Power Authority and KeySpan Corp. informed John Brolly that his balanced-billing payment for electricity and natural gas was about to go up by $100 a month, a 35-percent increase.

What it didn't tell Brolly, a certified public accountant who is pretty good with numbers, was why.

"Is it electricity or gas? Is it usage or price? You look at this [notice], and it really doesn't tell you much," said Brolly, who lives in Plainview.

The spike in Brolly's utility bill is almost entirely attributable to cold weather and soaring fuel prices, according to LIPA and KeySpan, and he is far from alone.

While the adjustments may surprise LIPA and KeySpan's 149,000 balanced-billing customers, other gas and heating oil users have been paying higher bills for months.

KeySpan officials said that from November through March the average heating customer used 38 percent more natural gas than the same period last winter, and the price of the fuel was 75 percent higher.

The cost of gas accounts for about 50 percent of heating bills, with the rest going toward fees for long-distance transmission and local distribution of the fuel. That means the net impact on gas heating bills is a 40-percent increase over last year, with the November-to-March total cost going from $900 to $1,260 for the average homeowner, KeySpan officials said.

Heating oil customers did not fare any better, according to Kevin Rooney, chief executive of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island. From October through March last year, an average oil customer who did not have long-term, fixed-rate contracts paid about $850, Rooney said. This year, that same customer paid about $1,400, he said.

Fuel use was up because this winter was 10 percent colder than the 40-year average and a whopping 42 percent colder than last year's mild winter, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The high cost of fuel can be attributed to a confluence of factors, including the high demand, fears about the impact of a war in the Middle East, and a drastic reduction in the amount of oil flowing from politically troubled Venezuela, said Rooney, who called it "an energy version of the perfect storm."

KeySpan spokeswoman Bonnie Habyan pointed out that monthly bills always break down the charges and say how far actual costs are diverging from the projections that were used to set the monthly payment.

Brolly said he suspected most customers do what he does: Look at the bottom line and ignore the complicated details. "Maybe I shouldn't be on balanced billing," he said. "You're dumb and happy for three months and then, all of a sudden, wow! Maybe I should just get killed each month."