The impacts of a winter storm can linger long after the snow has melted.

Memphians emerged from mid-January’s boil-water advisory, frigid temperatures, conservation notices and school closures to receive Memphis Light, Gas and Water bills that are, according to the utility, an average $24 higher than last January. That figure represents an 11% increase. However, some customers say their bills at least doubled from previous months. 

For a week in mid-January, Memphians dripped faucets to keep their pipes from freezing and bursting, and more than 4,000 MLGW customers still reported breaks to the utility. Between the constant drip of faucets and water that escaped through broken pipes, some customers’ water bills have risen. But the largest increases stem from higher consumption of electricity and gas.

Memphis avoided major power outages during a recent winter storm. How?

During January’s storm, MLGW asked customers to conserve energy and advised people to keep their thermostats at 67 degrees or lower. But that doesn’t mean customers were actually using less energy than in other months. The lower the temperature outside, the more energy is needed to run residential heating systems. 

Merial Hutchison lives alone in an East Memphis condo and said she turns off lights when she’s not using them and keeps her thermostat set below 68 degrees to save money. On top of that, she wasn’t home for more than a week in January, making her January bill — which doubled from December — even more unexpected.

“I’m going to have to pick up several side hustles to make this bill,” Hutchison told The Daily Memphian.

Outside help?

There are groups that offer assistance with utility bills — such as the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, or MIFA — and they generally see a wave of applicants after similar storms. 

“Employees will lose wages from business and school closures,” MIFA president and CEO Sally Jones Heinz said in a statement. “Parents will exhaust their grocery budgets because their kids were home from school for a week. Homeowners will face the cost of repairing burst pipes.”

To qualify for assistance from MIFA, someone must be past due on their rent or mortgage or have an MLGW cutoff notice.

The nonprofit was already overburdened before January’s storm, but Heinz said they know more fallout is coming as bills arrive. 

On average, MIFA has given each program participant $662 this fiscal year, which starts in July — a 30% increase from last year. Not only are more people applying for help, but Heinz said people are also showing up with bigger expenses, including utility bills of more than $1,000.

Other assistance can come in the form of MLGW’s Share the Pennies program, which funds weatherization and home upgrades for people who can’t afford it. That program also hit capacity during the January storm. 

The role of recent rate hikes

January also marked the beginning of a local rate hike that will increase MLGW customers’ power bills 12% in the next three years, or 4% annually. That’s on top of a 4.5% rate hike from MLGW’s power supplier, the Tennessee Valley Authority, that costs customers a few extra dollars every month on average.

The purpose of both MLGW’s and TVA’s rate hikes are to improve infrastructure, which was strained to the point of mandatory blackouts during December 2022.

“I’m going to have to pick up several side hustles to make this bill.”

Merial Hutchison

Alyssa Gregory-Violi also saw her most recent MLGW bill double this month to $400 for her Sherwood Forest home near the University of Memphis. 

“I shouldn’t be punished for a city’s failing infrastructure,” Gregory-Violi told The Daily Memphian. “The failure is on (MLGW), not the people who are forced to use them thanks to their monopoly.” 

The heating and cooling systems in older buildings have to work more to keep up, and much of the city’s housing is old and inefficient. Home upgrades, such as installing insulation or performing heating and cooling tune-ups, can make a dent in utility bills if customers can afford the upfront costs. 

Despite the rate hikes and the winter storm, MLGW said the average resident will pay $7.41 less per month overall for utilities this year compared to last year. MLGW credits that to lower natural gas prices and the utility’s hedging program, which locks in those lower gas prices. 

This January, if customers had used the same amount of electricity, gas and water as they did last January, their bills would have been an average $9 less, MLGW said in a statement.

Memphis housing doesn’t help when it comes to extreme temps

But customers were consuming more, absorbing any savings they would have seen from lower natural gas prices. 

“Even if you didn’t adjust your thermostat, the unit had to work harder than usual to maintain the normal temperature in your home,” MLGW said.

The assurance of lower prices in the long run doesn’t console Gregory-Violi.

“I’m not comforted by what they claim,” she told The Daily Memphian. “I am worried about the rising costs of living and how we are supposed to pay for it.” 

But other Memphians are welcoming the infrastructure investments and MLGW’s progress on its most glaring issues, such as long-overdue tree trimming. The city made it through the January storm with minimal power outages compared to the winter before when more than half of MLGW customers lost power.

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Higher bills are a price some people are willing to pay to keep the lights on. 

“Ours was almost double what it normally is,” Hallie Stout told The Daily Memphian. “But blessings (because) we had power and running water the whole time.”