Hudson gas deals produced mixed results from 2016–24, analysis finds

MetroHudson gas deals from 2016–24 came out roughly even, analysis findsThe hallways of Bristol Community have precinct signs for the two rooms being used by voters during primary election day on Tuesday, September 1, 2026 in Taunton, Mass.(Sebastian Restrepo/MassLive)By Michael Johnson, cleveland.comcleveland.com Express DeskCLEVELAND, Ohio — Hudson residents who joined the city’s voluntary, opt-in natural gas program got mixed results depending on when the city locked in a fixed supply rate.Under the household model used for this analysis, four of six completed contracts with publicly documented rates cost more for gas supply than the utility’s Standard Choice Offer. Two saved money, including the largest modeled benefit during the 2021–22 natural gas price surge.The Standard Choice Offer, or SCO, is the monthly variable commodity rate paid by most eligible residential customers who have not selected another supplier or joined a municipal aggregation program, according to Enbridge Gas Ohio’s explanation of the program. The analysis does not cover the program’s first roughly two years. Hudson says its voluntary opt-in arrangement began in 2014, but publicly available records reviewed for this story did not identify customer prices before late 2016. Across the six documented contracts, gains and losses largely canceled each other out. The modeled cumulative result ranges from about $18 in savings to about $41 in added supply cost, depending on billing timing assumptions.Hudson voters will decide Nov. 3, 2026, whether to give the city authority to establish a future opt-out governmental natural gas aggregation program. Ohio law requires voter approval before automatic aggregation can take effect, and Hudson City Council records show council adopted Ordinance 26-99 on July 21, directing the question to the ballot. The proposal differs from Hudson’s historical arrangement. Under the opt-in program, residents chose whether to enroll. Under a future opt-out program, eligible customers would be automatically enrolled if the city established one, but they could decline to participate. Approval of the ballot issue would give Hudson that authority; it would not itself establish a supplier or rate, according to the city’s current ballot FAQ. Hudson says it is considering the change because its energy broker could not find a supplier that met the city’s standards for competitive pricing, cost stability and consumer value under an opt-in model. The city says an opt-out structure could provide access to a larger supplier pool. Hudson’s FAQ explains the city’s reasoning. A previous cleveland.com story explained the ballot proposal.What the contracts producedThe largest modeled benefit came during Hudson’s $4.05-per-Mcf contract from November 2021 through October 2023. Constellation’s agreement confirms the rate and term. The contract produced an estimated $124 to $155 in savings for the modeled household as variable gas prices climbed. The utility’s SCO reached $9.533 per Mcf in September 2022, according to the utility’s historical rate table. When market prices later fell, the result reversed. Hudson’s next fixed rate of $3.59 per Mcf cost more than the SCO for much of its November 2023 through October 2024 term, producing an estimated $58 to $71 in added supply cost. Constellation’s 2023 agreement establishes the $3.59 rate and contract period. The accompanying analysis shows the same broader pattern across the other four completed contracts: fixed prices sometimes beat the variable utility rate and sometimes trailed it. Across all six, neither advantage lasted consistently enough to produce a substantial cumulative gain or loss.Fixed pricing gave participants a known commodity price, but not necessarily the lowest price in every market period. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel warns that governmental aggregation does not guarantee savings and advises consumers to compare available options. How the analysis worksThe analysis compares commodity supply costs only. Distribution charges, taxes, fees and other costs are excluded.To estimate household gas use, cleveland.com divided monthly Ohio residential natural gas consumption reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration by the agency’s annual residential customer counts. The result is an estimate of a typical Ohio household’s gas use, not actual Hudson household consumption. Because utility rates change during the month and customers have different meter-read dates, cleveland.com tested two timing scenarios. One pairs each SCO billing month with consumption reported for the same calendar month. The other pairs it with the preceding month’s consumption.Neither method reconstructs an individual Hudson bill. The timing choice changes the small cumulative total but not the result for any individual contract: four produced added supply costs under both models and two produced savings.A subsequent, seventh opt-in agreement is excluded because it ended before its planned term. Hudson announced a $3.75-per-Mcf Eastern Power & Gas rate through September 2025 usage. Eastern later said the program would end with April 2025 usage, with customers automatically returning to the utility’s SCO and no termination fee. Eastern attributed its decision to market conditions that made it difficult to maintain competitive fixed pricing. Hudson’s documented gas deals did not consistently beat the utility’s default price. Fixed rates cost participants more during several lower-price periods but produced substantial modeled savings when prices surged in 2021 and 2022. Across the six completed, publicly documented contracts from late 2016 through 2024, the modeled savings and added costs left the overall result close to even.Michael Johnson brings nearly four decades of newspaper experience in reporting, editing, newsroom leadership, page design and digital publishing. He has led daily and weekly newsrooms in Pennsylvania,...