Customers of Xcel Energy forewarned of increased expenses as natural gas consumption rises

Fargo, North Dakota – Natural gas production and consumption are being impacted by the cold weather across most of the United States, thus Xcel Energy is advising their customers to think about conserving for the upcoming days.

“We always want to be proactive and let our customers know when things like this happen, to be prepared,” Xcel Principal Manager Tony Grindberg said. “Whether that’s keeping your curtains open during the day to let sunlight come in to heat your home on the cold days to ceiling fans to change the filters on your furnace. Those are all things that, many times, people don’t really think about and so that’s the purpose of getting this message out to help people understand they can manage some of that within their own residence as well.”

Experts advise changing furnace filters once a month since a clean filter enhances airflow and can help you save as much as 15%. They also advise turning ceiling fans clockwise so warm air near the ceiling is driven down.

Thermostats can be set to 65 to 70 degrees during the day and as low as 58 degrees at night or when no one is home as further cost-saving measures.

According to Grindberg, even though supply and demand caused a rise in wholesale natural gas prices, they will not be as high as they were a few years ago when Winter Storm Uri knocked out Texas’ power grid.

“I think Texas has learned certainly from their system failing 2 years ago,” Grindberg said. “What we’ve read and heard about it is they’ve put measures in place to eliminate or minimize that again. The country is going through significant cold freezes, so there’s always a demand on the system. Fortunately, in our part of the country, we’re really well managed. We have enough electricity generation. We have enough natural gas to supply our customers.”