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City manager credits gas coalition for big price swing during cold spell
Summary
City staff told the council that moving gas purchasing to a municipal coalition significantly lowered the city's winter gas invoices compared with previous supplier charges during a recent Arctic cold spell.
City staff reported that Tuttle's recent membership in a municipal natural gas purchasing coalition produced markedly lower natural gas bills for the city during a severe cold spell.
Mister Slattery, speaking during department reports, said that usage and temperatures during the most recent four-to-five-day Arctic cold spell were comparable to a similar event in January 2024 but that the city's invoice this year was “a hundred and $40,000” compared with several hundred thousand dollars under the prior supplier. He said the coalition's buyer monitored market conditions and used hedging and reserve supplies to avoid higher spot-market prices.
He described the operational advantage this way: the coalition could draw on pre-purchased reserves rather than forcing the city into open-market purchases at peak spot prices. Slattery said the city paid roughly $4.35 per unit this February, versus amounts exceeding $20 per unit during the earlier event under the previous supplier. He called the move to the coalition “a win for us. It's a win for our customers.”
Council members also discussed localized operational effects from the cold spell: certain neighborhoods experienced dropped pressures and kicked meters as usage built over successive cold nights, with the city tracking increases from single-digit incidents to several dozen on later nights. Staff said the failures were concentrated in the unlooped Silver Ridge section of the distribution system and noted plans to complete two separate looping connections — one from Sarah Road and another from Cemetery Road — to provide redundancy. Staff said a 76 gas-line upgrade also will improve system reliability when completed.
The presentation included an operational detail: the city retrieved an invoice from the prior supplier showing an earlier month cost of about $333,000; under the coalition model the latest invoice was substantially lower. Council members asked whether the price differences were visible in news reports; staff responded that an ONG operational flow order and the coalition's pooled purchasing strategy were key drivers of differing community experiences.
No formal council action was required for the information item; staff said it would include estimates for pipe looping and upgrade materials in upcoming budgets and project lists.
