U.S. electricity customers are facing some of the largest bills in years because of volatile natural-gas prices, which are being driven higher by winter demand and a global supply shortage being made worse by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Already, the natural-gas supply crunch has made it substantially more expensive for utilities to purchase or produce electricity. As a result, some customers have seen winter power bills increase by 20% or more compared with the year before, in addition to seeing higher home-heating bills.
Now, with sanctions against Russia threatening to further constrain global natural-gas supplies, higher prices are likely to persist, executives and analysts say, especially in regions heavily reliant on the fuel for power generation.
Domestic natural-gas prices reached the highest levels in years ahead of winter as exporters shipped record amounts…
