NEW ULM — New Ulm residents could see February’s gas bills triple from last month because of the recent polar vortex.

New Ulm Public Utilities Director Kris Manderfeld said the polar vortex has resulted in the highest natural gas increase she’s ever seen. Gas prices increased from $2.60 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) at the start of the month to $188 per Mcf during the height of the polar vortex.

The New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (PUC) received a report on the high gas price from Manderfeld during the work session before the regular month PUC meeting.

Manderfeld said the recent cold drove up demand and the gas price. This happens whenever southern Minnesota faces extreme cold, but this time the cold weather impacted the entire country, reaching as far south as Texas. The supply of natural gas was affected.

“This has caused an economic disaster for any utility that relies on the market to get their gas,” Manderfeld said. Several municipal utilities have spent their entire fuel budget within the four days the gas prices spiked.

Manderfeld said because of this increase, the NUPU has spent the entire natural gas budget for the year. Anything purchased for the next 10 months is over budget.

Manderfeld said once NUPU saw prices spike, they alerted the public to warn them to conserve gas. The less a customer uses, the less they will pay. Manderfeld clarified the NUPU does not control the price of gas. The gas rate is based on the cost of fuel. This rate is not adjusted for profit. NUPU makes no money on the actual fuel. It is a direct pass-through from the gas supplier to the customer.

“When gas prices are going up it is not putting more money in the pocket of the utility,” she said. “It is going to our gas supplier.”

NUPU does take part in a gas hedging program to keep prices stable. In an average year, public utilities pay for 60% to 70% of its winter natural gas supply in advance at a locked-in price. Under this system, NUPU can lower the high market costs. Customers will not hit the low cost, but won’t hit the high cost either. This year because gas usage nearly doubled, the hedged gas only amounted to 30% to 40%. The hedging program has saved New Ulm gas customers, but there will still be a significant increase in February gas bills.

NUPU is in contact with state and federal organizations regarding this crisis. The goal is to get the word out to legislatures about the economic impact, in hope of starting an investigation into this incident to determine who benefited from the high gas prices and how to prevent it from happening again.

“I think there needs to be an evaluation into the winterization of supply and generation,” Manderfeld said. There have already been talks of investigation in Texas regarding winterization failures.

There is also a discussion of financial support through a federal fund or loan interest loans.

During the discussion PUC President Linda Heine said it not unusual for Minnesota to have several days of sub-zero temperatures, but because it was a nationwide problem the demand for gas was even higher than normal.

The commissioner asked how much of an increase the average customers could expect? Manderfeld, it was dependent on customer usage patterns but said the bill could more than double and could be potentially three times higher than January’s bill.

Going forward, NUPU is telling customers to keep conserving gas over the last five days of February.

“Every little bit that we can conserve will help your financial position as a consumer,” Manderfeld said.

The PUC plans to hold another special meeting on the gas increases before the regular meeting in March.