Colorado Springs residents can expect the monthly amount they pay for utilities to decrease slightly beginning April 1.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the decreases to natural gas and electric rates, which are driven by lower-than-expected costs for natural gas because of increased national supply and lower demand.

The average residential bill is expected to decline from $247.49 a month to $245.96 a month, or by about 1%, Colorado Springs Utilities Pricing and Rates Manager Scott Shirola told the Utilities Board of Directors last week. That board’s nine members also serve as the City Council.

Compared with last March, the average resident will pay about $37 less a month on a typical utilities bill for gas, electricity, water and wastewater services, Shirola told the council Tuesday.

Some customers may see an even larger decline in their monthly bills than expected, based on their actual usage, home efficiency and weather.

Colorado Springs Utilities customers are paying about 12% less on their four-service utilities bill than other utilities customers across the Front Range, Shirola said.

The agency reevaluates its rates monthly, and on a quarterly basis makes regular adjustments based on the market. Utilities passes gas and electric rates, up or down, directly onto customers four times a year, typically in January, April, July and October.

This is the fourth natural gas rate decrease since last March, and the first electric rate decrease since then.

The council also approved slight changes to the utility’s electric and gas capacity charges. For electric, this covers the cost of delivering natural gas used for electric generation. The gas capacity charge covers the cost to transport natural gas through pipelines to Colorado Springs as well as gas storage costs, Shirola said. Utilities reviews and updates these charges annually.

Starting April 1, the average residential Utilities customer can expect their bill to increase to 56 cents a month for electric capacity, or an increase of 0.6% from last July. The average residential bill will also increase to $2.51 a month for gas capacity, up by 7.2% from last July, Shirola said.

The coming increase in the gas capacity charge will occur because the utility has completed its refund of $7.4 million it previously over-collected for these charges, Shirola said, which the agency passed on to customers through reduced gas capacity charges beginning last July.

The newly-approved decrease in natural gas rates on Tuesday offsets the increase to the gas capacity charge, he said.

To help manage utilities costs, residents can weather strip doors and windows to reduce the amount of air lost from the home; change furnace filters every 30 days and schedule regular service; and in cold months set thermostats no higher than 68 degrees when at home and no higher than 60 degrees when away or sleeping, the agency said in a Tuesday news release.

Utilities also offers a $50 rebate for ENERGY STAR smart thermostats.

The organization offers tools to help customers manage bills, like budget billing and payment assistance through Project Cope and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program. Visit csu.org for more information.