Duluth Steam / City of Duluth Gas (ComfortSystems) Rate Selection Guide
City of Duluth Gas (operated by ComfortSystems and managed by Duluth Public Works & Utilities, alongside the Duluth Steam district system) serves roughly 35,700 natural gas customers in Duluth, Minnesota. Billing and monthly consumption run through a Tyler Technologies customer portal; there is no Green Button, EDI, API, or third-party data program, though a $428,366 Minnesota benchmarking grant (November 2024) is funding commercial steam and hot water meter upgrades that may expand data access.
Market Overview
Municipal gas service in Duluth has no retail supplier choice. The utility operates under Minnesota state guidelines including open data access standards and the Large Building Energy Benchmarking Program (MN 216C.331), with the city investing grant funds in meter and reporting infrastructure.
Need to pull your actual usage data to compare rates? See the Duluth Steam / City of Duluth Gas (ComfortSystems) Data Access Guide →
Current Rate Schedules
The City of Duluth's municipal gas utility (branded ComfortSystems) bills natural gas with three components: a fixed monthly charge, a per-CCF commodity charge, and a per-CCF Purchased Gas Adjustment (PGA) that flows wholesale gas cost changes through to bills monthly. Rates are set by city ordinance (effective with meter readings after January 1, 2025) and split by customer class and annual volume at the 200,000 CCF/year threshold, with interruptible and transport options for large C&I loads. The utility moves roughly 5 Bcf/year to 28,000+ customers over 550 miles of pipeline.
Effective: January 1, 2025 · Full Tariff Book →
| Schedule | Type | Applicability | Structure | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate 20 — Commercial/Industrial Firm, Small Volume | commercial | Commercial or industrial buildings consuming (or anticipated to consume) less than 200,000 CCF/year on firm, non-interruptible service. | $48.00 fixed monthly charge plus $0.850/CCF commodity rate plus PGA. | $0.850/CCF commodity + PGA |
| Rate 30 — Commercial/Industrial Firm, Large Volume | commercial | Commercial or industrial buildings consuming 200,000 CCF/year or more on firm service. | $238.00 fixed monthly charge plus $0.817/CCF commodity rate plus PGA. | $0.817/CCF commodity + PGA |
| Rate 50 — Interruptible Service | industrial | Commercial, industrial, or institutional buildings using more than 200,000 CCF but less than 4.5 million CCF/year, accepting interruption at the discretion of the Public Works & Utilities Director. | $535.00 fixed monthly charge plus $0.698/CCF commodity rate plus PGA — about an 18% commodity discount versus firm Rate 20 in exchange for curtailment risk. | $0.698/CCF commodity + PGA |
| Rate 55 — Interruptible, Very Large Volume | industrial | Commercial/industrial accounts consuming 4.5 million CCF/year or more on interruptible service (excludes municipal energy resale customers). | $535.00 fixed monthly charge plus $0.655/CCF commodity rate plus PGA. | $0.655/CCF commodity + PGA |
| Commercial/Industrial Interruptible Transport | industrial | Large C&I customers purchasing their own gas supply from third parties and paying the city for delivery only. | $535.00 fixed monthly charge plus a transport-only rate of $0.196/CCF in year one and $0.179/CCF in year two and beyond; customer sources commodity independently and avoids the city's commodity charge and PGA. | $0.179-$0.196/CCF delivery only |
Rate Recommendations by Use Case
MN benchmarking compliance for large buildings
Use the Property Consumption Request form to source building gas data for ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager submissions.
MN 216C.331 requires annual reporting for 50,000+ sq ft buildings, and the consumption request form is the sanctioned channel for historical building data until grant-funded meter upgrades land.
- Specify the full date range and all property addresses in one request
- Budget processing time — turnaround is undocumented
- Watch for expanded data services as the 2024 grant work completes
C&I gas cost and usage tracking
Combine portal Consumption Analysis trends with a monthly PDF bill archive.
Monthly totals in the portal plus archived PDFs are the only consistent dataset — no bulk export or machine-readable format is documented.
- Enroll in eBilling for automatic PDF delivery
- Link all city accounts (gas, water, sewer, stormwater) in one portal login
- Download the current bill PDF each cycle since history downloads are one-at-a-time
Third-party energy management and integration
Route all access through the property owner and ComfortSystems' manual channels — no automated path exists.
With no API, Green Button, EDI, or aggregator integrations, owner-submitted consumption requests and direct ComfortSystems contact are the only options.
- Have owners submit or authorize each consumption request
- Direct inquiries to 218-730-4050 / creditdept@duluthmn.gov
- Recheck after the commercial meter upgrade project for new interval capabilities
Cost Optimization Strategies
Duluth's municipal gas tariff rewards volume, interruptibility, and supply independence: commodity rates fall from $0.934/CCF (residential small volume) to $0.655/CCF (very large interruptible), and transport customers pay only ~$0.18-0.20/CCF for delivery. For C&I customers in a heating-dominated climate like Duluth's, the levers are rate-class election, interruptible qualification, third-party supply via transport service, and load reduction against the PGA.
Transport service with third-party supply
For: Interruptible-class C&I customers with volumes large enough to attract suppliers
Large C&I customers can buy gas from a marketer and pay the city only $0.196/CCF (year 1) or $0.179/CCF (year 2+) for delivery, bypassing the city's commodity charge and PGA entirely. With city commodity rates at $0.65-0.85/CCF plus PGA, competitive supply contracts frequently beat bundled service at scale.
Interruptible rate qualification
For: Industrial and institutional loads with backup fuel or curtailable processes
Accounts above 200,000 CCF/year that can curtail or fuel-switch on notice qualify for Rate 50 at $0.698/CCF — roughly 18% below firm Rate 20 commodity — and Rate 55 at $0.655/CCF above 4.5 million CCF. Curtailments are at the discretion of the Public Works & Utilities Director, typically during extreme cold.
Volume-threshold rate election
For: Mid-size commercial buildings near the 200,000 CCF/year boundary
The 200,000 CCF/year threshold separates Rate 20 ($48 fixed, $0.850/CCF) from Rate 30 ($238 fixed, $0.817/CCF). Accounts near the boundary should model both: the $0.033/CCF commodity saving on Rate 30 overcomes the higher fixed charge above roughly 70,000 CCF/year of incremental certainty. Verify classification annually against actual consumption.
PGA exposure reduction through efficiency
For: All firm and interruptible sales customers
The Purchased Gas Adjustment moves bills with wholesale prices every month. Building envelope upgrades, boiler tune-ups, steam trap maintenance, and heat recovery cut the CCF volume exposed to both the commodity charge and PGA volatility — doubly valuable in Duluth's ~9,700 heating-degree-day climate.
Weather-normalized budget planning
For: Commercial and institutional accounts with heating-dominated load
Duluth bills monthly with usage swinging heavily by season. Weather-normalize consumption (CCF per heating degree day) to detect equipment degradation early, and use the city's budget billing options to smooth cash flow rather than reacting to PGA-driven winter spikes.
To implement these strategies, you need your 15-minute interval data. Learn how to download Duluth Steam / City of Duluth Gas (ComfortSystems) interval data →
Frequently Asked Questions
Can C&I customers get interval gas data from City of Duluth Gas?▾
No. Monthly consumption totals in the portal's Consumption Analysis tab are the finest granularity — there is no 15/30-minute data, and AMI is not uniformly deployed. The 2024 Minnesota benchmarking grant is upgrading commercial steam and hot water meters, which may enable interval collection in future years.
How do building owners get historical consumption data for MN benchmarking compliance?▾
Submit the Property Consumption Request form on comfortsystemsduluth.com with requester contact details, date range, and property addresses. ComfortSystems emails the data (likely PDF or basic report). MN Statute 216C.331 requires buildings of 50,000+ sq ft to report annually to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and this form is the sanctioned data channel.
Does Duluth Steam / City of Duluth Gas support Green Button, EDI, or an API?▾
No. There is no Green Button DMD/CMD, no ESPI or OpenADR, no ANSI X12 EDI transactions or trading partner program (unlike CenterPoint, Xcel, or Minnesota Power), and no developer API or aggregator partnerships. Programmatic access requires direct manual arrangements with ComfortSystems.
What can commercial customers pull from the customer portal?▾
Current bill as PDF, bill history (multiple months viewable, downloaded one at a time), a real-time Account History of payments and billing dates, and monthly consumption trends in the Consumption Analysis tab across linked gas, water, sewer, and stormwater accounts. No CSV/JSON/XML export is documented.
How do consultants or aggregators access customer data?▾
Through the property owner. There is no third-party authorization portal — the owner submits the Property Consumption Request or authorizes sharing, and the consultant requests data on their behalf via 218-730-4050 or creditdept@duluthmn.gov. Expect manual, email-based delivery.
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