Indicative of the free-fall of wholesale natural gas prices of late, Xcel Energy Inc. announced Wednesday its retail gas utility rates in Colorado will fall 56% in April compared to that month last year. Charges will come in at about 32 cents/th, compared to 73 cents/th in April 2008, a Denver-based utility spokesperson said.

Xcel said natural gas bills in April should be 41-45% lower than the same month in 2008 with the lower bills being the result of a combination of expected warmer weather, lower customer use and the drop in wholesale gas commodity prices.

Charges for residential and small business customers in Colorado will drop 31% to 32.2 cents/th next month compared to March rates of 46.8 cents/th. As a result, Xcel said, typical bills in April will be nearly $30 less they are this month and $22.71 less than they were in April 2008.

The Xcel spokesperson emphasized that the utility does not profit from gas commodity sales to retail customers. “All costs associated with increases or decreases in the commodity price are passed along to customers on a dollar-per-dollar basis.”

Xcel noted that the Nymex natural gas contract price for Henry Hub delivery has decreased 70 cents/dth since Feb. 10 this year. At the same time, the Colorado Interstate Gas/Rocky Mountain regional basis has been relatively stable, causing projected natural gas costs for April to be lower than March this year.

Factors contributing to the lower wholesale gas costs include the reported federal figures for Feb. 27 showing that gas supplies in storage (1.7 Tcf) were more than 218 Bcf above the five-year average for the same time period, and 270 Bcf above last year’s level.

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