Kings Mountain residents will soon see a $2.59 per month average savings on their natural gas bill.
City leaders made plans to cut costs in the city's natural gas fund, despite a planned increase in natural gas rates, according to city leaders.
The city was set to see a 28 percent rate increase from Williams (Transco) — the company they purchase natural gas from — but after negotiations with the company, it was eventually lowered to 11 percent. The city will start paying that rate this April, and will be paid back for the extra money they have already paid.
But how did the city cut costs?
Kings Mountain currently pays $32,400 per year, plus $1,000 in taxes, for a storage space for natural gas in Covington County, La.
This week, Nick Hendricks, the city’s energy service director, said having the storage space was no longer necessary.
“The energy world has changed and there’s so much natural gas and fracking being done. It’s a changing energy world, so we plan to discontinue the storage, but we can go back at any time,” said Kings Mountain Mayor Rick Murphrey.
The city will also sell the extra gas that was in storage for a profit of $55,000.
The 11 percent increase is still in effect, but Murphrey said the city didn’t want to pass that cost on to the customers.
“We looked at some internal cost-cutting and savings and it ended up to where we could save the customer $2.59 per month on their bill," Murphrey said.
Hendricks recommended to Kings Mountain City Council no increases on natural gas bills for Kings Mountain customers this year or next year.