Utility Fact Sheet - Office of Physical Plant - Penn State University

Penn State University
Utility Fact Sheet
Utility Contracts:
Coal is contracted for on a yearly basis from a third party vendor. The contract can be re-negotiated in yearly increments
if both parties agree. Pricing is either a fixed cost including delivery or a fixed cost of coal plus a fuel delivery surcharge.
The projected price average for 2010 is $114.22 per ton including delivery.
Natural Gas is contracted on a two-year basis from a third party vendor (Sprague Energy). This contract was bid in May
of 2008. The contract contains a fixed price for production and delivery to the city gate (Basis pricing) and NYMEX
based commodity pricing. Natural gas transportation is a tariff rate with Columbia Gas, the local distribution company.
Our cost at the burner tip for 09-10 was approximately $7.42 per mcf, a decrease of 15% from last year.
Fuel Oil is purchased as necessary to keep the oil fresh and the tanks full. The quantity of oil shown may not all be used
in the year it was purchased since natural gas is preferred over fuel oil at the heating plants.
Electricity distribution service is purchased from Allegheny Power. All ten incoming feeders are monitored concurrently
by the utility company and billed as one service. The demand component is totaled each week and all four weeks are
averaged for the month before billing, therefore low demand or load shedding in one week helps to reduce the overall
demand charge. Electric generation for 09-10 was purchased at a market based rate. A retail contract for Calendar year
2009 supply ended on 12/31/2009 and a new wholesale supplier began supplying electric for Calendar year 2010 and
beyond. The rate for wholesale supply is variable however we are projecting a decrease of 10-15% from last year.
Utility Charge Rates
Some Departments pay the cost of their utility usage to OPP. These are Departments such as Housing and Food Service
and Athletics. The following chart shows the billable rates charged as well as our avoidable costs that are used for Energy
Savings Projects for FY 10-11:
Utility Avoided Costs Billable Rate Units Comments
Electricity
$1.09 $1.09 KW 5 sub-stations only, 1 st half
$0.06872 $0.08601 KWH 5 sub-stations only, 1 st half
Electricity
$1.09 $1.09 KW 5 sub-stations only, 2 nd half
$0.0658 $0.08294 KWH 5 sub-stations only, 2 nd half
Natural Gas $8.24 $9.57 MCF Blended Rate
Steam $10.41 $21.59 1000 pounds
Water & Wastewater $3.53 $9.01 1000 gallons
Chilled Water $0.22 $0.22 Ton-Hour
Publisher: Penn State University, Office of Physical Plant, Energy and Engineering Division, Engineering Services
Editor: Shelley McKeague, Environmental Compliance Analyst, Ph: (814) 867-1307, email: slm449@psu.edu
OPP-UFS-UP:2010 8