Springfield Business Journal_2021-02-22

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For larger commercial and industrial customers, the change can be more impactful. At Springfield Powder Coating, reduc- ing natural gas usage meant shutting down operations for four days, Feb. 16-19. As part of the powder coating process, a large oven the size of a two-car garage is utilized, and it runs on a lot of natural gas. “At full tilt, it runs about 1.5 million Btu, which literally will heat somewhere around 65-75 homes,” Lewellen said. “When we turn our oven on, as they say, the lights go down.” British thermal units measure the amount of heat needed to raise a pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Lewellen, a retired engineer, said a typical home is heated with about 15,000 Btu. Unable to operate without the oven, Lewellen said he shut down the business and sent his employees home for the week and spent the few days working on mainte- nance and other tasks. “My work is still sitting there waiting for me, and it’s not a problem for us to come in on the weekend and catch up,” Lewellen said. Mills said the natural gas curtailment helped supply levels during the extreme weather. Natural gas was in high demand due to the temperatures but there also were gas shortages due to some natural gas wells freezing in different parts of the country, he said. Suppliers increased prices on natural gas, raising them from $3 per dekatherm to almost $400 per dekatherm, according to City Utilities of Springfield. Dekatherms are units of energy for natural gas, with one dekatherm equaling 1 million Btu. City Utilities also asked customers to re- duce natural gas and electricity usage, im- plementing rolling blackouts of power and a natural gas curtailment throughout the week. CU initiated curtailment agreements with several commercial and industrial custom- ers in the area that were able to switch from natural gas to an alternate fuel source, ac- cording to a news release. The curtailment was originally implemented until 9 a.m. on Feb. 16 but was later extended to the morn- ing of Feb. 19. As of the morning of Feb. 18, the South- west Power Pool had returned its service territory, including CU, to an Emergency Level 0, meaning levels were returning back to normal, said Joel Alexander, manager of media and energy services for CU. “That doesn’t mean we’re out of this yet, it just means things are improving,” Alexander said. “We still want customers to conserve. That’s why we still want our natural gas cur- tailment customers to be on that policy right now.” The customers on CU’s curtailment list represent, on average, 10% of the total de- mand based on data from the past five years, Alexander said. At Spire, Mills said officials monitored gas supply levels throughout the week to ensure the gas curtailment could end safely. Spire announced on the morning of Feb. 18 they were ending emergency curtailment in southwest Missouri – where its service foot- print covers Greene, Christian, Lawrence, Barry and Stone counties. “We’re carefully monitoring it, literally minute by minute, watching the system and making sure before we do anything that the supply is there and the demand has gone down,” Mills said. Mills said implementation of natural gas curtailment is uncommon and generally linked to these types of weather events that lead to more demand and cause issues with supply. “It’s been decades since we’ve had ex- treme temperatures like this, and that’s the usual situation where you have to have some sort of curtailment,” he said. Mills said there will be an impact on cus- tomer bills. Higher usage before curtailment coupled with the higher prices on resources will lead to more expensive bills for custom- ers. “We haven’t been able to quantify exactly what that cost is going to be, but we know bills are going to be higher because of usage and natural gas prices that have increased over this past week simply because of the supply and demand,” Mills said. In light of the service interruptions, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and members of the Mis- souri Congressional Delegation on Feb. 18 sent a letter to the chairperson of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking for a review of the natural gas supply, according to a news release. “We need to ensure there is an adequate supply of affordable energy and natural gas for families, farmers and businesses in Mis- souri and the Midwest,” the letter reads. The letter also was signed by Sen. Roy Blunt and Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason Smith, Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler, Ann Wagner and Billy Long. $400.00 per dekatherm $3.00 per dekatherm Utility: Federal legislators seek review of natural gas supply Continued from page 1 SUPPLY FREEZE High demand for heat and frozen natural gas wells limiting supply have led to a jump in the market price for natural gas, according to City Utilities. HEATHER MOSLEY