Think prices at the pump are high? Imagine the price of heating an entire university.
It's hard not to notice gas prices on marquees at stations, but prices on natural gas are up, too. More consumption of natural gas at Ohio University this year resulted in greater utility costs than normal.
The university typically spends $9 million a year on utilities, said Ron Chapman, a capital planning engineer with OU Facilities Management. This year, $2.5 million will be spent on natural gas alone.
Most of OU's natural gas powers the Lausche Heating Plant behind West Green, which provides heat and hot water for the entire campus. The plant burns coal to produce steam, which is converted into power for the university.
A new system -sorbent technology -was added to Lausche from July 2003 to January 2004. While it was under construction, most of OU's natural gas supply was sent to Lausche in lieu of coal. The sorbent technology system filters out sulfur from the exhaust of burning coal so the atmosphere can't absorb it. Before this environmentally friendly technology was implemented, OU could not burn the specific type of coal because of exhaust restrictions from the Environmental Protection Agency. High levels of the exhaust can mix with water and cause acid rain. But with the technology, OU can burn the cleaner, cheaper coal.
However, while the updates were being made to Lausche, the coal-fired boilers could not be used because there was no way to filter coal exhaust while the heating plant was being converted. Natural gas was used instead, and premium costs rose to more than a million dollars.
The net result is because of that particular construction project
we burned a great deal more gas than we normally would Chapman said. But we knew that and built it into the budget.
During the Lausche construction last summer and fall, the university spent about $250,000 each month on natural gas.
Chapman said the university is now back to using mostly coal, which is three and a half times cheaper than natural gas and a more efficient fuel.
Utility costs are figured into students' room and board fees, but Chapman said students should not see an increase in utility fees next year. The extra natural gas costs from this year will be absorbed over the long term, and most immediate costs were covered by the university's general utility fund and dorm utility fund.
Chapman said the unit cost of gas is still high.
It's a fact of life; you just watch and see what happens he said. But we've paid higher gas prices before than we are at the present time.
A high point was in January 2001, when it cost $12.32 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas. The previous month it cost $7.64 and the month after it cost $7.76.
Gas is very volatile on the market. It racks up pretty fast
Chapman said.
Forecasts for the 2003-2004 fiscal year show that OU will have spent $634,792 more on natural gas than last year because of the extra natural gas consumption at Lausche and cost of natural gas increasing, Chapman said.
Next year, money allocated to natural gas is projected to go down to $1.8 million, even though the cost per unit may go up, because the new system will be in place and OU won't use as much natural gas.
The current average price for natural gas is $7.26 per thousand cubic feet. Last year's average was $6.93 and in 2002 it was $4.95. Coal tends to have a much more steady price, Chapman said.
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