• Fiscal Year 2002
• Fiscal Year 2003
• Fiscal Year 2004
• Fiscal Year 2005
• Fiscal Year 2006
• Fiscal Year 2007
• Fiscal Year 2008
• Fiscal Year 2009
• Fiscal Year 2010

Monthly Utility Usage & Cost

Take a look at the historical usage and cost of the west campus utilities over the past decade.  While domestic water & sewer usage has remained relatively flat, both electric and natural gas usage has steadily increased in step with our campus growth.  Please note that more updated figures are now available in the latter pages of the above Annual Energy Reports.

About $380 is spent each year per Full Year Equivalent Student.  This equates to 4% of full time student's tuition.  (based on 15 credit hours for two semesters)  As of FY2010, cost per square foot was approximately $2.50 annually.

We need your help!  A significant amount of electricity is used during the night time and weekend hours.  Looking at the following chart, you can see that the University maintains at least  2 megawatts of electrical consumption throughout evenings and weekends.  (kW Demand Chart) Each of the spikes is one day.  The spikes are grouped a weekly pattern of five high usage days and two weekend days. 

Our summer electrical usage peaked at just over 7.5 Megawatts.

A significant portion of this off-peak usage comes from equipment that is not turned off!  Lights, computer monitors, computers, printers, copy machines, etc... should all be turned off during the evening to extend their operating life, save energy, and save on pollution the resulting to our environment.  To learn how to automatically shut off your monitor and hard drive, take a look at the Green Computing Guide.

Auxiliary Department Utility Charges

NATURAL GAS:  Oakland University purchases its natural gas on the wholesale market from various suppliers.  The wholesaler then delivers the gas to our local distribution company (Consumers Energy), who then delivers it to our door via one gas meter located at the Central Heating Plant.  To view the past wholesale gas prices, look at the monthly New York Mercantile Exchange prices for natural gas contacts originating from Henry Hub.  Henry Hub is a pipeline hub in Louisiana and is the reference delivery point for all U.S. natural gas futures contracts.  Click here to view the real time pricing for natural gas on the NYMEX.  Trading starts at 10AM weekdays.

ELECTRICITY:  In 2002, Oakland University entered into a two year contract to purchase electricity under our State's Electric Choice program.  The University saved approximately $500,000 in FY03 and $380,000 in FY04 on the program.  The situation is nearly identical to the natural gas purchasing program.  An alternative electrical supplier delivers our required electricity to our local distribution company (Detroit Edison), who then delivers it to our switchgear at the south substation.  The contract has been completed, and we are monitoring market conditions and regulatory issues to see if a second contract will be favorable.  Click here for more information from the State on Electric Choice. 

WATER:  The west campus receives its domestic water supply from the City of Auburn Hills via three meters.  Our campus water piping connects all three supply mains together, forming redundant paths of delivery.  The east campus receives its water from the City of Rochester Hills.

INDIVIDUALLY METERED BUILDINGS:  Numerous smaller buildings on the east and west campuses are individually metered for gas, electricity, and water directly from the Consumers Power, Detroit Edison, and Rochester Hills.  The cost of these individually metered locations is approximately 1% of our annual utility purchases.  Several of the east campus auxiliary units purchase their own gas and power. 

Auxiliary Department Utility Charges