US Commercial Energy

🚨 DUKE ENERGY OHIO GAS ALERT 🚨

Natural gas customers on Duke Energy Ohio’s utility rate could see a BIG increase starting June 1 📈🔥

The Price to Compare (PTC) is jumping nearly 30%:
➡️ May: ~$0.7586/CCF
➡️ June: ~$0.9850/CCF

What’s crazy?
This increase isn’t mainly from higher natural gas prices 👀

The biggest driver is a new reconciliation charge (“SSOCR rider”) being added onto customer bills — adding nearly 28¢ per CCF for the next 3 months.

💡 What this means:
• Higher summer gas bills for many customers
• Utility rates can increase even when market prices fall
• Understanding your supply structure matters more than ever

A lot of customers only look at commodity prices… but riders, capacity costs, and reconciliation charges can have a huge impact on your actual bill.

If you’re a Duke Ohio customer, now’s a good time to review your gas pricing before these changes hit.

UtilityBills

⚡ Ohio Energy Market Update – What Businesses Need to Know⚡

Energy prices across Ohio are continuing to stay elevated and volatile, and we’re seeing a few key trends shaping what’s available right now:

• Electric rates remain above historical averages due to rising capacity costs in the PJM Interconnection market
• Utilities like AEP Ohio and Ohio Edison are still reflecting higher price-to-compare (PTC) levels than what many customers were used to in past years
• Suppliers are being more cautious with pricing and we’re seeing shorter quote windows and some pulling back during market swings

💡 What this means for your business:
If your account is sitting on a variable or expired rate, you’re likely paying significantly more than necessary right now. Locking in a fixed rate, even slightly below the utility, can provide budget stability and protection from further increases.

📊 We’re still finding opportunities to beat the utility rate, especially for businesses that act quickly while pricing is available.

If you’d like a quick review of your current rate or a comparison, feel free to message us or send over a recent bill!

⚡ Natural Gas Update: What’s Driving Prices Right Now?

The natural gas market is sending a pretty clear signal right now and it’s not exactly bullish. Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:

📦 Storage is building fast
Inventories are now sitting about 7% above normal, thanks to mild spring weather keeping heating demand low. That’s allowing producers to inject more gas into storage than usual.

📉 Prices slipping despite recent gains
After a short rally, natural gas futures pulled back about 2% this week as the market reacts to strong supply and weaker demand expectations.

🌡️ Weather isn’t helping demand
With temperatures staying relatively mild, demand is expected to dip further in the coming weeks; another bearish signal for pricing.

🚧 Permian bottleneck = negative prices
At the Waha Hub in West Texas, prices have been negative for a record stretch due to pipeline constraints trapping gas in the Permian Basin. Translation: there’s so much supply locally that producers are essentially paying to move it.

🌍 LNG exports are booming… but not moving the needle
Even with record-high LNG exports, domestic prices haven’t reacted much. The U.S. market remains largely insulated from global price spikes (for now).

💡 Bottom line:
We’re in a supply-heavy, demand-light environment—which is putting downward pressure on prices in the short term. But as always in energy, things can shift quickly with weather, production changes, or global events.

If you’ve got a contract coming up for renewal, timing and strategy matter more than ever in this kind of market.

⚡️ OHIO ENERGY UPDATE: AEP RATES + AGGREGATIONS

If you’re in Ohio—this matters right now 👇

📊 AEP Ohio Price to Compare:
Currently ~9.9¢/kWh

👉 Sounds okay… until you realize:
• It was ~7–8¢ just a couple years ago
• It already hit 10.5¢+ earlier this year

Translation: Prices aren’t going back down—they’re just fluctuating on the way up.

🏘️ Town Aggregations (What’s Actually Happening)
A lot of people think they’re “locked into a good deal”… but:

• Many aggregation rates are expiring
• New rates are coming in higher
• Some towns are losing aggregation altogether

👉 Meaning you could quietly roll onto a higher utility rate without realizing it

📈 The Reality
• The market has shifted
• Cheap electric is (for now) a thing of the past
• Waiting = usually paying more later

💡 What to Do
Know:
✔️ When your rate expires
✔️ What you’re currently paying
✔️ What your options are before you default

If you’re not sure where you stand, we can take a quick look and tell you in 2 minutes 👍

OhioBusiness

⚡ Natural Gas Volatility Is Back — What It Means for Energy Prices

Natural gas has been on a wild ride to start 2026 — up nearly 100% in Q1, only to reverse and drop 18% by the end of March.

So what’s going on?

📉 Short-term bounce: Prices ticked back up to ~$2.95/MMBtu this week, driven by geopolitical tension and LNG export disruptions tied to the Middle East.

🌡️ But fundamentals tell a different story:

Warmer-than-normal weather is reducing heating demand
Storage is shifting from deficit → surplus heading into April
Oversupply risks are building

⛽ Meanwhile, gasoline just crossed $4/gallon for the first time since 2022 — showing how global events are still heavily influencing energy markets.

Bottom line:
The recent price spikes are being driven more by headlines than actual supply/demand. As those geopolitical pressures ease, we could see natural gas (and potentially oil) trend lower — similar to what we’re already starting to see.

If you’re coming up on a renewal, timing and strategy matter more than ever in this kind of market.