By Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register
Keeping warm this winter will cost Iowans and others in the Midwest as much as 20% more than last year, given not just the frigid weather but an expected spike in natural gas and electricity costs, projections from a national group says.
Just how much Iowans’ heating bills may rise depends on what’s powering families’ furnaces: Electricity users are projected to see a 19.7% hike this winter, and for those with natural gas, it’s expected to be 16.4%, according to a report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. The Washington, D.C., group lobbies federal officials to support energy assistance for low-income consumers.
Propane, mostly used by rural residents, will see the smallest increase, at 0.4%.
Across all fuels, Midwest residents are expected to see average bills rise 14.4%, or $118, to $938 for the winter season, the report says. Electricity users are projected to see average bills climb $246 for the season to $1,498; gas users, $99 to $698; and propane, $5 to $1,347.
MidAmerican Energy, Iowa’s largest power provider, said it expects consumer bills to climb an average of 13%, although the costs depend on factors like the severity of the winter and usage. Alliant Energy, the state’s second-largest utility, did not provide a requested estimate.
The price of natural gas is a major driver of the expected bump since 59% of Iowan households rely on it for heat, U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows. Utilities like MidAmerican and Alliant are allowed to pass higher natural gas costs on to consumers.
In addition, natural gas accounts for about 21% of the fuel Iowa utilities use to generate electricity, the federal energy data show. Wind, solar and other renewable energy sources provide about 41% and coal, 38%.
Rising natural gas costs are helping drive electricity rates higher in Iowa and the nation, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Nationally, natural gas prices are forecast to climb about 13% in 2026, in part due to a cold start to the winter, the federal energy group reported in December.
Iowa’s rising winter heating bills come as consumers already are struggling to pay them.
Since October, the number of central Iowa residents seeking heating assistance was 20% greater than the same period in 2024, said Anne Bacon, CEO of IMPACT Community Action Partnership, a group that provides food, housing and other services to low-income residents in Polk, Jasper, Warren, Marion and Boone counties.
“With stagnant wages and the cost of everyday food and other essentials going up and up and up, it’s rough out there,” Bacon said. She added that the agency is seeing “a higher level of stress from families, a lot more anxiety and what feels like panic as people struggle to get their needs met.”
Here’s what to know about what’s impacting heating bills this winter and what it means for Iowans.
170,000 Iowa families struggle to pay utility bills
In October, even before the Arctic cold, snow and howling wind that beset Iowa as November turned to December, investor-owned utilities reported to the Iowa Utilities Commission that 173,000 families were late paying $23.87 million in power bills. That was nearly 5,300 more accounts overdue than in October 2024, the report shows, and about $1.3 million more than late payers owed last year.
Iowans are protected by a winter moratorium that prevents utilities from disconnecting low-income families who qualify for federal heating assistance from Nov. 1 to April 30.
Assistance is available. The state has received 90% of $58 million slated to be awarded to it through the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the program in the state.
But the federal appropriation to Iowa this year is unchanged from 2024, the state said, and the failure to keep pace with rising costs is a problem, said Wolfe, the energy assistance association leader.
“Working-class, middle-class people see their budgets stretched by higher food prices, higher rent prices, higher medical costs, and now energy costs are going up,” he said. “It’s having a big impact on their budgets.”
First few months of Iowa winter forecast to be colder, wetter
Winter conditions play a big role in natural gas prices, and Iowa and the nation are experiencing a colder-than-expected December. But ratepayers could catch a break: The U.S. Energy Information Administration says it expects “milder-than-normal weather” to arrive in early 2026, reducing demand.
U.S. natural gas production also is expected to climb next year, the agency reported, as domestic demand grows in part due to expanding data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations. Also complicating pricing, exports of liquid natural gas are projected to increase, the energy agency said.
MidAmerican, the Des Moines-based utility owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, said it’s taking measures to protect consumers from “extreme price spikes and seasonal run-ups,” including locking in prices on a third of the natural gas it expects to need this heating season and operating its own liquefied natural gas storage facilities.
Will data center development in Iowa push prices higher?
Even with projections of more supply, James Martin-Schramm, a Clean Energy Districts of Iowa senior policy analyst, said he’s concerned consumer costs will shoot up with Iowa utilities scrambling to build new electric generation to meet data centers’ exploding energy needs.
QTS, a Virginia data center developer and operator, proposes investing $10 billion to build up to seven data centers in Cedar Rapids, and Google, the California tech giant, plans to invest $7 billion in Iowa over the next two years.
There’s also a proposal from Cielo Digital Infrastructure, a Florida developer, to build a data center on Des Moines’ south side. It would be the first in Polk County, though no timeline has been released.
Google’s plans call for building a data center in Cedar Rapids and expanding its existing Council Bluffs facilities. It’s also weighing construction of a data center campus near Palo, where NextEra Energy plans to restart the shuttered 615-megawatt Duane Arnold Energy Center, Iowa’s only nuclear power plant, to meet the power demand.
Google reaches agreement to buy power from Iowa’s only nuclear plant after it restarts
Despite that, much of the proposed new power generation will be fueled by natural gas, Martin-Schramm said. Alliant has proposed building an 850-megawatt natural-gas power plant, with its location as yet undecided, and ― to meet demand when it’s at its highest ― a 720-megwatt “peaker plant” in Marshalltown and another two, each generating 94 megawatts, in Des Moines and Linn counties.
MidAmerican also plans to build a 518-megawatt peaker plant in southwest Iowa.
Martin-Schramm said the projects are not good news for ratepayers.
“Building massive fossil fuel infrastructure specifically to serve these energy-intensive facilities exacerbates the (cost) volatility risk borne by all ratepayers,” he wrote recently.
Wolfe, the energy assistance association leader, said states including Ohio, where vast data centers are in the works, are discussing whether big tech companies should pay more for generation, grid and other infrastructure costs that come with powering the operations.
Those costs usually are “spread across the whole rate base,” Wolfe said, but since the investments are “being done to benefit data centers, people are arguing they should bear more of those costs.”
Martin-Schramm’s group and others want the state’s utilities to invest more heavily in renewable energy instead of increasing their reliance on natural gas.
Iowa already is a major adopter of renewable energy, getting the nation’s largest share of its electricity from wind, at 63%. MidAmerican recently won approval to build 800 megawatts of solar energy, and Alliant plans to construct up to 400 megawatts of battery storage and proposes adding 1,000 megawatts of wind energy.
“Now is not the time to build more gas-dependent infrastructure,” Martin-Schramm wrote. “Instead, Iowa should accelerate investment in homegrown, no-fuel-cost renewables and energy storage.”
What to do to get heating assistance, cut costs
Utilities offer budget billing and other programs to help customers manage their costs. MidAmerican customers can call 888-427-5632 day or night for assistance. Alliant customers can call 800-255-4268 or go alliantenergy.com/energyassistance for information about consumer options.
Families interested in applying for heating assistance can reach out to one of 14 local community action agencies across Iowa. They can also call 211 Iowa — toll free at 866-813-1731 — for information about available assistance.
MidAmerican also offers some practical ways to cut costs, like reducing home temperatures 7-10 degrees while sleeping, dressing warmly while at home and using weatherstripping or caulking to seal cracks and covering windows with wrap to keep out drafts.
Iowa snow, cold more severe than usual so far
Winter doesn’t even officially start until Dec. 21, yet Des Moines already has seen more than its usual share of cold and snow. According to National Weather Service records, November and December through Sunday, Dec. 14, have brought 18 inches of snow, about half of the total amount the city gets in an average winter. And December temperatures so far have been showing a similar trend. The average through Sunday was 28.1 degrees vs. 38.6 in a typical winter.
There’s a warming trend coming, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts weather through February in the region that includes Des Moines will continue to be colder than normal, with precipitation in the eastern half of Iowa above normal.
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