MILWAUKEE — For the last several years, many of us have seen high grocery prices, high fuel costs and now high energy bills. The Midwest Regional Climate Center marked this January as the fifth warmest on record, and TMJ4 found many folks across southeast Wisconsin are feeling the heat, but in their pockets.
"People have to start making choices of how do I pay my energy and how do I put food on the table," Lisa Hilgenberg said.
Hilgenberg's a local mother of two. She said she's been forced into making a difficult financial decision this winter. One her and many others said they're having to make too.
"Maybe we don't purchase the foods that we want or the medications we need," mother Bailey Huffman said. "We moved from the Chicago suburbs because we thought the cost of living would be easier to manage, a little bit cheaper, and so far, especially when it comes to utilities, it has been absolutely opposite," she added.
Both Huffman and Hilgenberg are We Energies customers. They told TMJ4's I-Team that they were aware of the 11 percent electrical bill increase starting in 2023. However, they also said there were other increases on the bill they weren't aware of.
"Just the gas alone is over what I would be estimating for us to pay for the entire bill for the winter season," Hilgenberg explained.
Huffman and Hilgenberg said they saw unusual bill increases since the start of the year. When the I-Team took a look into their bills, we noticed it too. Hilgenberg spent nearly $70 on natural gas in December 2022. She used more gas in January, but her bill more than tripled, reaching more than $254 just for natural gas.
"Having a bill that's like 100 percent more than what you're used to spending, or more, that's when it gets to be really alarming," Hilgenberg said.
Huffman said her family is on the same page.
"We're paying twice as much now," she said.
After several We Energies customers contacted the I-Team, we started digging. At the start of 2023, electric bills spiked 11 percent, as We Energies forewarned.
However, the price of utility natural gas went up too, nearly 43 percent.
Brendan Conway with We Energies said this reflects a decades-high price surge happening nationwide.
"We warned customers going into this winter, we expected, on average, the typical customer would pay $20-30 a month on average," Conway explained.
Since 2020, the price of natural gas has continued to skyrocket. From summer 2021 to summer 2022, prices nearly tripled. Experts said it's in part due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. However now, in February 2023, prices are at a historic low according to Bloomberg.
With the now-low prices, we went straight to We Energies Vice President of Infrastructure, Dan Krueger, for an explanation.
"Why isn't this reflected on customers' bills? Why raise the price instead of go off of the open market price which is fairly cheaper right now," Investigative Reporter Jenna Rae asked Krueger.
"It's a good point. So, open market price doesn't mean we can get all the gas we need. We buy gas in three parts. A third of what we buy, we buy in storage, we usually buy that when gas is cheap in the summer," Krueger explained. "The gas that we buy at fixed price for guaranteed delivery, that's set usually a year in advance with the approval of the commission. Spot prices, we are buying some at these cheap prices and that will be reflected in cheaper bills," he said.
Rae then asked, "are the higher prices now reflected because of the high prices of gas in the summer that we experienced in 2022?"
"That's certainly part of it, yeah," Krueger said.
Krueger said it's hard to know when bills will go down, especially since winter is typically more expensive. For now, We Energies recommends you take your natural gas usage into your own hands.
When you're at home, try and set your thermostat below 71 degrees or even cooler when you're sleeping. This can help you save a few bucks.
If you're cooking in the oven, for the last few minutes of your cook time, turn the oven off, it still stays hot without costing you more.
Lastly, check your air filters. The more frequently you change them, the less energy you're using.
We Energies does offer budget billing which averages out your total energy usage for the year and breaks it down monthly into more even bills. To learn more about budget billing, click here.
We Energies also offers financial assistance for qualifying customers. You can learn more about that, here.