Energy boost for heating bills

Although the weather is far from wintry, Minnesota kicks off the Cold Weather Rule season on Friday with fewer Minnesotans behind on their bills or living without heat.

Through September, 26 percent fewer households were more than a month behind on their bills compared with the same period last year, according to Xcel Energy Inc. The amount owed is $18.5 million, down from $22.2 million.

About the same number of CenterPoint Energy customers are past due on their accounts this year as last year, but they owe $16 million -- roughly half as much as last year, company spokeswoman Becca Virden said.

The Cold Weather Rule helps protect Minnesotans from having their heat turned off between Oct. 15 and April 15, so long as the utility company is contacted and a payment plan is followed.

Relatively low natural gas prices and less severe weather have helped keep families owing less. But Pat Boland, Xcel's credit policy and compliance manager, said an above-average amount of energy assistance money was probably the main factor. "It not only helped them get through the heating season last year, but might have helped them a little bit more going into the summer months," he said.

The amount of energy assistance available this winter in Minnesota from the federally funded, locally administered Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) remains to be seen. For the past two years, $5.1 billion was distributed nationally, the maximum authorized funding level.

The first allocation is expected in late October or early November, John Harvanko, the state's director of energy assistance programs said. Minnesota received $156 million in federal fiscal year 2010 and $164 million in federal fiscal year 2009 -- enough to help everybody that applied for the program in the state. The program is available to families earning 50 percent of the state's median income or less. That's $43,500 per year for a family of four. The average grant was about $500.

But demand continues to grow. Already, 87,246 households have applied for help this program year -- a 14 percent increase from the 76,775 households that applied at this time last year.

On any given day, 180 residents apply for energy assistance at the Community Action Partnership of Suburban Hennepin County, one of several agencies where residents can apply for help. Applications are up 20 percent so far this year, on top of the 20 percent increase from the year before, said Jennifer Romero, who helps coordinate the energy assistance program there.

John McDonald was among the new applicants Thursday. The 28-year-old from Richfield was laid off from his banking job last year and his bank account is "almost down to completely zero," he said. His unemployment benefits expired this spring and energy assistance will help cover the heating bill while he continues to job hunt. McDonald, like many applicants, is seeking help for the first time in his life.

"Anything to help right now is so beneficial," he said.

Members of the once-middle class are typically used to paying their bills and tend to be of the mind that a partial payment is better than nothing. "Being able to reestablish some sort of payment history is critically important to them," Romero said.

"The overall lower natural gas prices have really been a large contributing factor," Virden said. "More customers have been able to stay reconnected and pay down their balances."

Midwestern households are expected to spend 6 percent more on natural gas this winter, according to a forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released Wednesday. The average expenditure is expected to be about $850 from October through the end of March.