OG&E customers to see savings beginning in September
Low natural gas prices, benefits of SPP Integrated Market allow for nearly 5 percent savings for average customer
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Gas & Electric today announced that its Oklahoma customers will see lower bills beginning in September 2015. The savings are the result of lower costs for the fuel used to generate electricity combined with the benefits of the newly implemented Southwest Power Pool Integrated Market. The reduction should lower the average residential bill by about $5 a month.
“We’re pleased to deliver this savings to our customers,” said OG&E spokeswoman Kathleen O’Shea. “We are fortunate from an electricity perspective to be in an extended period of lower natural gas prices. These lower prices were compounded by the fuel saving benefits provided by the SPP Integrated Market, which makes it possible to pass along these savings on monthly electric bills.”
Under regulatory rules, the company annually sets its fuel rates to recover from customers its projected fuel costs.
“Natural gas generally has had the greatest price variance when compared to coal and wind,” O’Shea said. “Today, we’re seeing historically low natural gas prices, and this low cost of fuel benefits our customers.”
O’Shea added that by rule, the company does not profit on the cost of fuel used for electric generation.
OG&E, a subsidiary of OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE), serves approximately 819,000 customers in a service territory spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.