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Actual costs vs. fixed-rate plans: A comparison

A CenterPoint Energy customer who lives in a western suburb of the Twin Cities, compared his actual cost for natural gas over the past three years to what he would pay under the company's "No Surprise Bill" option. He says his bills would have been higher under the "No Surprise Bill" by an average of 26 percent over the past two years.

ACTUAL MONTHLY COSTS
  Quantity (in therms)   Cost
Month 02-03 03-04 04-05 02-03 03-04 04-05
December 129 132 111 $89.08 $106.04 $116.07
January 169 153 197 $115.91 $133.63 $193.62
February 178 183 130 $130.46 $160.90 $123.79
March 158 119 133 $148.01 $110.19 $121.06
April 93 85 73 $89.54 $68.92 $69.76
May 61 59 67 $51.66 $53.81 $70.79
June 38 39 32 $36.07 $41.17 $36.33
July 33 32 28 $32.73 $34.61 $31.80
August 27 25 25 $26.27 $27.51 $31.19
September 28 26 26 $26.57 $27.06 $35.70
October 43 39 31 $37.51 $36.69 $47.85
November 87 75 38 $69.06 $12.91 $58.65
TOTALS 1,044 967 891 $852.07 $813.44 $936.61

NO SURPRISE BILLING
  03-04 04-05 05-06
Per Month $88.28 $90.54 $112.19
Per Year $1,059.36 $1,086.48 $1,346.28*
No Surprise Bill exceeds actual $245.92 $149.87 n/a
Percentage 30% 16% 44%*
* Estimated

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