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Gas: The NYMEX front months of April, May, & June saw little volatility as the market attempted to find its footing in regards to the direction it wanted to head in prior to uncertain summer temperatures. These three NYMEX trading months all settled between $3.14-$3.24. The July-17 NYMEX finally broke out of the lull, falling to as low as $2.85 on the heels of what has been an extremely mild summer, especially considering the record heat most regions of the U.S. experienced only one year ago. Increases in exports & natural-gas fired electricity generation were projected to eat heavily into the supply surplus in underground storage levels built up over the past few years. Instead, rapid additions to the total natural gas & oil drilling rig counts have aided in ramping up production levels quicker than many market pundits had predicted. The resulting scenario has been seen in stagnant NYMEX prices prior to the last few weeks. Forecasts coming for winter 2017-2018 loom large in the background as the market is ultimately waiting to see if we are in store for a shift in the overall supply-demand balance. Electric: Please be aware that due to an order issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on January 31, 2017, electric suppliers are incurring additional ancillary costs as of June 1, 2017, termed 'Balancing Congestion' costs, that may be passed-through on your electric bill. Simply stated, “balancing congestion” costs represent the money generators are paid by PJM to reflect the difference in day-ahead power market clearing prices and real time / balancing market prices. Previously, these costs were pooled with other congestion costs for which generators were responsible. The FERC determined that these balancing congestion charges are the responsibility of electric suppliers. This order creates a new cost to suppliers that did not previously exist and increases their cost of serving customers in the PJM region. As the decision was made at a Federal level, the increase was unavoidable for suppliers serving customers within the PJM footprint.