Summit Natural Gas Restores Gas Service to Industrial Customers

Thanks Industrial Customers for Helping Preserve Gas Access to Homes During Supply Shortage

2/18/2021

LEBANON, MO – Summit Natural Gas is pleased to announce they have lifted their curtailment order on industrial customers. They were able to communicate that news to the impacted businesses yesterday afternoon.

Because of gas supply issues and extreme winter weather across the Midwest beyond the company’s control, Summit had to make the difficult decision on Sunday to require industrial customers to stop using natural gas except for heating needs. Thanks to the cooperation of those customers and residential customers, the company was able to preserve gas access for homes and essential services during the unprecedented event.

“We know the recent shortage of gas supply has affected businesses, community members and workers in many ways. We appreciate everyone contributing to the solution – particularly our industrial customers who stopped company operations to reduce their gas use in order to preserve gas access for homes, small businesses and essential services, like hospitals, during this extremely difficult time. We can’t thank them enough,” said Phil Marcum, Senior Manager of Business Development at Summit. “We continue to experience some supply constraints and ask customers to conserve their energy usage at this time, but are hoping we will be operating at full capacity in coming days as temperatures warm and supply is restored.”

Tips for conserving energy usage include:

• Keep your thermostat a few degrees lower than normal, as long as there are no health risks. Avoid turning your thermostat up too high, too fast.
• Reduce your thermostat overnight and when you are away from home for more than a few hours.
• Turn down your water heater to 120 degrees.
• Clear space around your registers so warm air can flow freely. Close dampers on unused fireplaces and keep garage doors closed to prevent warm air from escaping. Insulate around windows and doors to prevent air leaks and keep warm air inside.
• Soak up the sun by opening curtains on your south-facing windows during the day and let the sunlight heat your home. Then, close them at night to reduce the incoming cold from any drafty windows.

In addition to reduced energy usage, here are tips to stay safe at home:

Never use an oven or a gas stovetop to heat your home. Protect natural gas meters. Natural gas meters are weather-proof; however, to ensure that the meter keeps working smoothly, remove snow and ice from natural gas meters with a broom or brush. Never kick or chip snow and ice away with a hard object. Minimize the risk of frozen pipes. In the event you lose heat or power, leave faucets running at a trickle, leave cabinet doors open, and close all doors and windows to keep heat inside.