Summer isn’t even over yet and bills for natural gas are on the rise – and that doesn’t bode well for Lawrence residents, businesses and others as they look to afford keeping warm this winter, utility officials say.

The typical natural gas bill this month for a Lawrence resident is $43.33, up $15.52, or 56 percent, from $27.81 a year earlier, said Larissa Long, a spokeswoman for Aquila Inc. in Lawrence.

Such increases will be expected to endure into December, January and February, when their bite will be felt the most. That’s because gas use spikes in the winter to fuel furnaces, water heaters and other essential equipment at home, work and elsewhere.

Even buffeted by fixed-price contracts and other market-mitigating moves, Aquila officials say they still may end up buying up to 30 percent of their gas supply on an open market – a market susceptible to hurricane disruptions, usage spikes and other pressures that could make matters worse.

“If we have a really cold winter, and that price jumps up, that price will be higher,” said Long, whose office in downtown Lawrence manages gas service for 100,000 Kansas residents and businesses, including about 33,000 customers in Lawrence. “We want customers to be aware of that and to take steps to conserve energy.”

The anticipated price increases will be expected to add pressure to an already strapped program to help low-income and elderly customers pay their heating bills.

Last winter, Warm Hearts of Douglas County offered one-time subsidies of up to $300 for qualifying individuals and families who needed assistance covering utility bills, said Linda Lassen, who coordinates the program with other social service agencies in town.

The program provided 344 families – a total of 833 people – with $64,000, she said. Requests totaled $82,000.

She worries that this winter’s help list will grow and the available funds might not keep up.

“We’re seeing people ask us – Penn House and other agencies – for help paying for gas (online) just to get to and from work, and we never see that,” Lassen said. “It’s scary, just scary.”

• 6News video: Utilities warn of red-hot heating bills this winter

The pending pressures on natural gas bills only will make a tough situation worse, she said.

“There are a lot of families on fixed incomes,” she said. “It’s either pay the gas bill or buy food. We have a lot of elderly people, they either pay the gas bill or buy medicine. That’s what we worry about.”

Aquila’s “Aquila Cares” program provides financing for customers who have difficulty paying their utility bills. In Douglas County, the program is administered through the Salvation Army and Warm Hearts.

Aquila says it will match donations to the program, dollar for dollar, up to $250,000, plus pump another $250,000 into the program for a potential total of $750,000. The company’s previous maximum match was $100,000.