Commercial Natural Gas Supplier Illinois

Gas procurement for Illinois businesses: how seasonal volatility impacts budgets, what basis means, and where storage and swing provisions can help.

Seasonal Volatility

Winter demand and pipeline constraints can cause price spikes. Staggered terms and hedging help manage the risk profile.

Understand citygate basis, balancing, and swing. Compare offers from Illinois commercial gas and electric providers on an apples-to-apples basis.

Fixed

Lock a price per therm for a set term.

Example: 75,000 therms/year at $0.58/therm. Bill = usage x $0.58 (+ utility delivery).
Good for: Predictable budgets; simple for teams without trading bandwidth.

Index

Monthly price floats (e.g., NYMEX) plus local basis.

Example: July: $0.42 + $0.08 basis = $0.50/therm; January: $0.62 + $0.12 = $0.74.
Good for: Taking advantage of off-peak months; requires governance.

Hybrid

Hedge a portion or key months; leave the rest index.

Basis matters

Your delivered price = market index + local basis. Basis reflects transportation/storage costs to your delivery area.

Example: If basis is typically $0.10/therm, a $0.55 market month lands near $0.65 delivered (before utility delivery fees).

Storage & swing

These terms affect how much you can deviate from forecast without penalties.

Example: A 20% swing lets 10,000 forecasted therms vary between 8,000-12,000 without extra charges.

All examples are for explanation only and not price offers.