A heavy burden: Winter energy bills are going up, no matter how you heat your home
Peco's electricity price is set to go up 15.8% on Dec. 1. Natural gas, heating oil, propane, and even firewood all cost more this winter. But some energy prices might be peaking.
Winter heating bills will be higher this year for most homeowners, regardless of how you heat your home.
Residential customers will spend about 28% more to heat with natural gas than last winter, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, though gas prices appear to have stabilized somewhat since dramatic increases at the end of last winter.
Electric power will also cost more. The energy portion of a Peco electricity bill will go up 15.8% in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs on Dec. 1, the seventh straight quarter the supply charge has increased. Energy prices for many other Pennsylvania electric utilities will also move up Dec. 1.
But there is a silver lining to electricity prices: There are indications that they may be peaking, and customers could have choices with competitive suppliers in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, prices for less common heating fuels in this region, such as propane and kerosene, are also increasing. “You can’t even find kerosene for $6 or $7 a gallon right now,” said Tom Kloza, the global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service.
Unprecedented price gyrations
Perhaps hardest hit will be customers who use fuel oil for heating, which still accounts for a fair number of households in Northeastern states. According to the Energy Department, heating oil customers can expect to pay more than $5 a gallon, or 45% more this year than last.
“We’re seeing gyrations in pricing that I’ve never seen in my life,” said Doug Woosnam, 78, executive vice president of the Delaware Valley Energy Marketers Association, which represents heating oil dealers in the region.
Prices for heating oil and diesel, which are the same fuel, were pushed up last year by the post-pandemic economic surge. They continued to soar this year in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when European buyers bid up any oil, gas, and fuel supplies that can serve as alternatives to Russian energy. U.S importers of heating oil and diesel, particularly Northeastern dealers who are more dependent upon imported refined products, were forced to compete with hungry European buyers, said Woosnam.