BATON ROUGE — Six months after Delta Utilities began offering natural gas service to 95,000 homes in East Baton Rouge Parish, complaints about prices are spiking.

"I don't understand why the hike up in the gas," Delta customer Cathy Netter said. "We have a heater, but you know we don't use the heater every day. We haven't had a whole lot of cold. Maybe once or twice a week, then it's back hot again."

Since the region's first cold snap, hundreds of people reached out to WBRZ to complain that their natural gas bills were much higher than expected. Delta Utilities is aware and met with WBRZ to discuss a variety of customer issues.

"We recognize that customers are experiencing some higher bills during the winter months, and so we know that it's important to educate customers about the kind of appliances that they have," said Sarah McLaughlin Porteous, Delta's vice-president of communications.

But heater use isn't the only factor. Delta Utilities is paying more for gas than it did last year, and passing the cost along to customers.

According to the company, some homeowners might not be aware of how many items in their homes might use natural gas. Water heaters and stoves are used throughout the year, and furnaces are a major culprit behind higher bills in the winter.

"I travel often and I don't really use much fuel at all in my home. I only have two things running gas, which is my hot water heater and my heater furnace. When I leave home, I don't leave my heater running," customer Aaron Banks said.

Customers can compare bills from month-to-month to determine both usage and the company's cost to use its network of pipes. Each bill has three major components:

-Customer charge, which everyone pays. In East Baton Rouge Parish, it's $10.71 a month for the privilege of being a customer.
-Gas service charge, which pays for infrastructure, the actual pipelines that carry gas to your home or business. And
-Gas adjustment charge, which is the cost for the actual gas used.

This month, the utility also includes fees for inspections, research and development.

WBRZ viewers who reached out to the station sent copies of their monthly bills that showed jumps from $25-30 a month to over $100. One viewer in Bellingrath showed that her bill climbed from $25 to $179 — a 616 percent increase.

Entergy Louisiana spun off its natural gas operations last summer, with Delta Utilities acquiring 95,000 customers in East Baton Rouge Parish. (In New Orleans, it took over 109,000 customers.) During the transfer, Delta did not automatically keep its new customers on levelized billing, so many customers are seeing true wintertime gas bills for the first time in years.

Also, natural gas prices last year were higher than they were a year ago. Gas prices Delta passed on to customers last month were just over 65 cents per unit — about two thirds higher than the 39.975 cents per unit Entergy paid last year.

Delta says if customers cannot afford their bills, it can help them make payment arrangements. It also will work with United Way to help, it said.

"We're going to be launching a program in partnership with United Way in Southeast Louisiana later this month, where Delta Utilites will offer utility assistance to customers who qualify," Porteus said.

WBRZ checked utility rates in other states and found that, for a home that used 5,300 cubic feet of gas last month, it would have a bill around $77 in East Baton Rouge and about the same in Arkansas. The same amount would run about $66 in Pennsylvania, but $114 in eastern Oklahoma.