The city’s rate of unaccounted natural gas use is down by almost 20 percent, according to information from Mayor George Flaggs Jr.’s office.

Unaccounted natural gas is gas that is being used but not being paid for, because city officials are unable to determine where it is being used.

When he took office in 2013, Flaggs said, unaccounted gas use was at 24 percent. It is presently at 4.86 percent, which is below the state average of 5 to 8 percent.

“I attribute that to the work of the staff and the (gas department) employees, who have gone out and replaced the old gas meters with new meters and monitored gas use,” he said.

He said the city in 2014 began replacing the old meters and installing new digital gas meters that are more accurate, and performed maintenance on existing meters. Employees also made reports and worked to locate gas use that was not being accounted for earlier.

“We’re looking at more than $1 million in savings for the city,” he said. “And that means the gas system will have a very good surplus, which we knew was coming.

“We’re not going to stop watching use. We’re going to continue monitoring for four or five more months to make sure about the use, because we had a very mild winter, and that may have also figured into our numbers.”