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The Official Newsletter of Cobb Electric Membership Corporation | JANUARY 2022
UPCOMING EVENTS Scholarship information sessions We are proud to offer the Cobb EMC Foundation Scholarship, which awards 14 scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each to eligible students with a primary residence served by Cobb EMC. The annual scholarships are funded and administered by the Cobb EMC Foundation board. Join us for one of two virtual information sessions to learn more about the scholarship and application process. Sessions are not required to apply for the scholarship. The application deadline is Feb. 25. Virtual information sessions Jan. 11 at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m. Learn more at cobbemc.com/ cfscholarship.
Small change, big difference Since inception, the Cobb EMC Foundation has awarded more than $6.7 million to local charities and nonprofits. Thank you to members who round up their bills each month through Operation Round Up. Visit cobbemc.com/foundation for a full list of recipients or to learn how to request funding.
WHY WERE NATURAL GAS PRICES IN GEORGIA HIGH LAST FALL? If you were shopping for low rates from natural gas companies in Georgia last fall, you probably noticed a drastic rise in natural gas prices with companies across the board. We wanted to share a little about why prices have risen and how our subsidiary Gas South – and other natural gas companies – set rates. It starts with the NYMEX Like other natural gas companies, Gas South doesn’t produce natural gas. They purchase it to sell to homes and businesses after a price has been set by the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world’s largest exchange for energy products. At the NYMEX, traders meet and set prices based on several different factors. Why has the NYMEX been high? Supply and demand is a huge consideration when it comes to setting the price of natural gas, and it’s at the heart of why prices have risen — higher than they’ve been since a spike in 2008. More than a decade ago, gas and oil companies began using more efficient methods to extract natural gas from beneath the earth. That helped create a nice reserve to put into storage. Demand had also been relatively low during this period. So, needs were met, and prices stayed low. Hurricane Ida impacted prices after it blew through last August, leaving a wake of destruction that, among other things, shut down natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico by 94%. Despite the setback, there was still a nice reserve prior to this summer, but record temperatures helped siphon much of that off. Natural gas is the largest source of electricity production in the U.S. — power plants make about 40% of their electricity from it. When the heat wave hit, electricity use skyrocketed as people ran their air-conditioning units into overtime. The capacity of interstate pipelines was unable to handle the volume of gas needed to meet demand, thus constraining pipeline flow (unusual for the summer season), which often pushes prices up. Cobb EMC is well prepared for high load situations like this with our diverse mix of resources, interconnection agreements with other utilities through our generation and transmission cooperative (Oglethorpe Power) and with our long-term power contracts with Southern Power. In short, supply wasn’t meeting the demand. And that boosted the price of natural gas set by the NYMEX, causing home and business owners throughout the U.S. to pay more for their gas. How can you cut your natural gas costs? The price of natural gas fluctuates, despite being relatively stable from 2008 until now. It’s impossible to say for certain where rates will be in the future. But there are ways to protect your pocketbook. For more information about Gas South, available rate options and natural gas savings tips, please visit gassouth.com and gassouth.com/blog.
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