With electricity price shock still very much on their minds,California’s three major investor-owned gas utilities are alreadygearing up for potential similar shock surrounding natural gasbills this winter as gas futures prices are hovering twice as highas they were a year ago. Wednesday natural gas futures hit anotherall-time high, topping $5.

“We’re putting together a plan right now and should be rollingit out in the next few weeks,” said a San Francisco-basedspokesperson for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. “From what we arehearing from the industry analysts, it sounds like the wholesalegas prices are going to be significantly higher, which willdefinitely have an impact.”

The PG&E Corp. combination utility is currently assessinghow high the average residential and small business gas bills mightbe, trying to make educated guesses on future wholesale prices thathave remained at record levels all summer in the midst of theelectricity crunch.

Sempra Energy’s two utilities, Southern California Gas Co. andSan Diego Gas and Electric Co., are both preparing winter high-billcommunications efforts, too. Sempra is expecting increases of atleast 30% this winter, which would increase average SoCalGasresidential bills to $72 monthly, compared to $54 last winter; and$58 monthly, from $44 last year, for SDG&E.

The San Diego utility last spring spent $1 million inadvertising and promotion to forewarn its electricity customersabout the prospect of high summer power bills, but when the pricespikes first emerged in June the communications effort appeared tohave had little effect in dampening the outcry from consumers andstate officials.

The PG&E gas utility spokesperson said it is stillundetermined if it will apply advertising to the gas bill campaignsince the company has experienced “significant advertisingbudgetary cuts” this year. “It will definitely include news media,direct customer contact, call center information and billinginserts.”

Richard Nemec, Los Angeles

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