Fayetteville, Ark. – Feb. 17, 2021 - As current artic conditions impact large sections of the country, Black Hills Energy is closely monitoring the situation to ensure the impact on homes and businesses is minimized and urging customers in the Mountain Home, Melbourne, Calico Rock, Norfork, and Salesville areas to conserve natural gas.

“There has been widespread energy demand across the country. We applaud and appreciate the businesses who have scaled down their energy usage to allow more capacity for homes. To date, the only issue we are experiencing is a natural gas interruption in Pea Ridge, which has impacted approximately 2,300 of our customers. We are working to restore service as quickly as possible and are continuing to actively monitor our system,” said Chad Kinsley, vice president of gas operations for Black Hills Energy in Arkansas “We have worked to ensure homes stay warm, and we’ve requested certain large volume and ‘interruptible use’ customers to decrease usage as needed to allow our residential customers to continue receiving service, but we need your help.”

Here are some tips to keep your family warm while the demand for energy is so high:

• If health concerns aren’t a factor, set your thermostat to 68 degrees in the winter and reduce it 2 to 3 degrees while you’re away from home or sleeping.
• Hold off on doing chores. Doing laundry or washing dishes can use energy to heat the water and your dryer. If you can, only wash full loads using cold water, air dry your clothes, or even better, wait until the extreme cold weather passes to complete these activities.
• Check your furnace filter – make sure it’s clean and properly installed facing the correct direction.
• Make sure your furnace vent, gas fireplace vent and tankless/conventional water heater vents are free from any obstructions or debris.
• Adjust your humidity. A well-humidified house at 68 degrees is as comfortable as a dry house at 75 degrees.
• Use kitchen, bath and other ventilating fans only as needed. In just one hour, these fans can exhaust a house full of warmed air.
• Reduce hot water usage. Use low-flow faucets and shower heads and take short showers instead of baths. Set the temperature on your water heater to 120 degrees or put it on the “warm” setting.
   

Black Hills Energy also realizes increased nationwide usage could result in higher bills, and there are a number of resources available to support customers:

• The easiest way for families to access emergency assistance funds is to call 211, and a representative will connect them with a utility assistance case worker in their area.
• Energy payment assistance for any heating source is also available to Black Hills Energy customers and other residents in the Black Hills Energy Arkansas service area through the Hearts Warming Homes Program. Those seeking energy payment assistance can contact The Salvation Army at 1-800-227-2156.
• Arkansans may also qualify for assistance through the state Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP), visit  LIHEAP | DEQ (state.ar.us) for more information.
• Budget Billing is a free, stable payment option offered by Black Hills Energy that makes bills more predictable by averaging the amount you pay each month so you can avoid spikes in a bill caused by seasonal anomalies.

“There has been widespread energy demand across the country, and our reliable system and team is ready to respond to the historic cold. We applaud and appreciate the businesses who have scaled down their energy usage to allow more capacity for homes. They’ve set a good example of steps we can all take to ensure we’re collectively resilient through this storm," Kinsley added.