Let your wallet try this on for size: Metro utilities are expected to jump an average of $242 for all of 2022.

That’s the bottom line from new water, natural gas and electricity increases.

The biggest jump is coming from the Metropolitan Utilities District, which is looking at a significant bump in the average gas bill—$191 more for the entire year of 2022.

MUD wants you to know it’s not a rate hike but is due to the higher price of gas MUD has to buy.

At the same time the utility has increased its water rate; that’s expected to cost the average customer $15 a year.

Add in the Omaha Public Power District’s likely increase of $36 a year and you’ll be shelling out that $242 more for all of 2022.

As we reported earlier, that OPPD hike would follow a year of rolling black-outs in the winter and massive summertime power outages that left tens of thousands in the dark—some for up to six days.

The utilities’ top bosses are recommending what it calls “a modest rate increase” for 2022, an average 2.5 percent hike across all customer classes.

The rate hike, ending a five-year freeze, is scheduled to be voted on today by OPPD’s elected 8-member Board of Directors.

According to OPPD, the higher bills are due to several factors including new technology and “greater investment in the maintenance of overhead lines.”

Last July, a storm carrying winds of 52 mph, with unofficial reports of hurricane force winds of 90 mph, killed power to 188,000 customers. We’re told 120,000 had power restored in 24 hours while “extensive and complex” tree damage found thousands of others waiting and waiting.

OPPD says one area of its budget, tree trimming, is getting a major boost, $14.28 million in 2022, nearly twice the $7.64 million of five years ago.

The utility serves 849,000 people in 13 counties stretching from the Kansas border to Burt County and includes the cities of Omaha, Papillion, Bellevue, Blair, and Ashland.

As for MUD, on average every 24 hours there is at least one water main break in and around Omaha, 500 a year.

According to the utility the breaks come with “increasing frequency and cost” and they are getting the blame for at least part of that water rate increase. MUD says an aging infrastructure is forcing the installation of new pipes. We’re told those pipes have a more resilient coating and a thicker wall that helps prevent corrosion.

MUD provides gas to 220,000 customers in Omaha, Bennington, Fort Calhoun, Springfield and most of Bellevue. Water is provided to 203,000 customers in Omaha, Bellevue, Bennington, Carter Lake, LaVista, Ralston, Waterloo and the Papio-Missouri Natural Resources District.