This month is an exciting time for the energy division. We’ll be mailing the propane contracts and/or safety information to over 15,000 propane customers. Be sure to share the safety information with your entire family.
As we strive to accommodate changes in how customers do business, we experimented with a couple of new things this year. The first was auto renewal. If you checked the auto renew box on your contracts last year, we renewed your contract at this year’s rate and billed your account.
We have also gotten a lot of requests to fill out contracts online. Our propane customers that we had an email address for and averaged over 400 gallons over the last couple of years received an email explaining how to contract online. If you didn’t get an email, missed the deadline or decided not to contract online, you’ll get a contract in the mail by mid-June like you normally do. On the contract, you’ll have an opportunity to provide your email address so you can get an email next year to get a jump on contracting.
Let me save you some time if you are having difficulty deciding whether you should lock in your propane price. I’ve been in the propane business for 33 years and I contract my propane every year. I use it as a risk management tool. Nearly every year you will see an increase in prices about the time U.S. farmers begin harvesting corn and soybeans. You can almost set your watch by it.
Typically, if it is a colder than normal winter, you’ll see prices continue to increase during the winter. During a warmer winter, prices typically remain close to the same but rarely decline (unless prices started in the summer abnormally high).
Other factors that can have an adverse impact on propane prices are inventories, production, exports and world events. Inventories are building this year because of increased production but exports are also strong, which means inventories are building at a pace a bit slower than I would have expected. As far as world events, broadening of the war in Ukraine, China making good on its threats to attack Taiwan or OPEC leaving production at current levels or lower could have quite an adverse effect on prices. In the past 33 years, I’ve seen retail prices hit $3.70 per gallon but I’ve never seen it go below zero.
Let’s pivot to propane incentives. In new homes or for replacing an electric heating system or a fuel oil furnace with a propane furnace, $500. Installing a propane water heater, $500. New propane fireplaces, kitchen stoves or clothes dryers, $300. Make sure you take a photo of the data plate on the appliance you’re getting rid of before it leaves your house. You’ll need that for the incentive application. Call your nearest Premier Energy office for more details.
I hope you have a wonderful June and thank you for your business!
