Summit Utilities Officially Acquired Centerpoint Energy In SWOK

Today, a story that has developed for over a full year finally comes to a close as Centerpoint Energy has announced their deal to sell our natural gas service area has finally concluded. If you did have natural gas service through Centerpoint, you will be transitioned over to our new utility service provider Colorado-based Summit Utilities.

With a staggering sum of money, $2.15Billion, Summit has acquired a little over half a million consumers in markets not only across Oklahoma but also Arkansas and a portion of Texas.

If you read the investor release over at Centerpoint Energy's website, they're elated about this deal. Not only did they manage to work in the payback for last February's historic blizzard fiasco that showed the weak points of the current way the system works, but they were also able to walk away with a tremendous valuation and chunk of change.

What does this mean for consumers like us? Well, even though last February's grossly inflated fuel bills weren't Summit Utilities problem, as they have funded the loss in this deal, we'll all still be paying the surcharge the Oklahoma Corporation Commission agreed to allow over the next generation of Lawtonians.

On the plus side, everyone that worked for Centerpoint Energy in these areas of their operation was welcomed to transition straight across to the Summit Utilities team.

So how are things going to work going forward?

If you received the same email I did from Centerpoint yesterday, they're going to assist Summit for the time being for things like billing and customer support. This could linger on for the entire year according to the Summit press release.