FARGO (KFGO/KVRR) — As cold weather across much of the U.S. affects production and demand for natural gas, Xcel Energy is urging their customers to consider conserving for the next few days.
“We always want to be proactive and let our customers know when things like this happen, to be prepared,” Xcel Principal Manager Tony Grindberg said. “Whether that’s keeping your curtains open during the day to let sunlight coming in to heat your home on the cold days to ceiling fans to changing the filters on your furnace. Those are all things that, many times, people don’t really think about and so that’s the purpose of getting this message out to help people understand they can manage some of that within their own residence as well.”
Experts suggest running ceiling fans clockwise so warm air near the ceiling is forced down, and replacing furnace filters once a month as a clean filter improves airflow and can help you save as much as 15 percent.
Other ways to help with costs involve lowering thermostats to 65 to 70 degrees during the day and as low as 58 degrees at night or when no one is home.
Grindberg said while wholesale natural gas prices increased because of supply and demand, it will not be as high as it was a couple years ago when Winter Storm Uri shut down Texas’ power grid.
“I think Texas has learned certainly from their system failing 2 years ago,” Grindberg said. “What we’ve read and heard about it is they’ve put measures in place to eliminate or minimize that again. The country is going through significant cold freezes, so there’s always a demand on the system. Fortunately, in our part of the country, we’re really well managed. We have enough electricity generation. We have enough natural gas to supply our customers.”
