Continued cold weather over the past couple of weeks and record-breaking energy demand will translate to higher customer bills. Heating systems, including portable/space heaters and water heaters, are among the top users of gas and electricity.

Despite stable natural gas prices and statewide calls for energy conservation, the average residential customer’s bill is likely to double or triple this month due to energy use that is significantly higher than normal.

In October, CPS Energy projected February residential gas use to be about 58 hundred cubic feet (ccf) at a cost of about $55. Based on recent weather, an average residential gas customer could see consumption of 200 to 300 CCF at a cost of $170 to $250, putting the combined gas and electric bill for an average homeowner in the range of $245 to $325.

All-electric customers also should expect to see higher-than-normal bills. Where typical monthly electricity use is about 1,200 kilowatt hours (kWh) at an average cost of $100, extreme temperatures drove some customers to use two to four times as much electricity 2,500 to 4,500 kWh this month, at a cost of $180 to $315.

Two consecutive record-breaking days for electric energy demand occurred due to temperatures that dipped into the teens. On Feb. 2, electric use in Greater San Antonio exceeded 89,175 megawatt hours (MWh), in spite of rolling outages, surpassing the previous record set Aug. 10, 2010 in 100-degree-plus weather. On Feb. 3, electricity consumption exceeded 91,000 MWh. Natural gas use for the same period was at a 15-year high for Greater San Antonio.

CPS Energy will work with customers to budget payments as needed. Customers are encouraged to call customer service at 353-2222 as soon as possible if they need to make payment arrangements.