Where does NMSU power come from?
There are two main sources of electrical power at NMSU. The first source, and the supplier of approximately 60% of the electricity used at NMSU, is El Paso Electric. What comes as a surprise to many people is that the other 40% is generated in-house at the OFS Central Utility Plant (CUP).
Electricity from the CUP is generated by a cogeneration, natural gas fired turbine. This creates an "essential bus" to which all critical buildings and systems are connected. In the event of a campus-wide power outage a continuous flow of electricity to these critical buildings and systems is maintained by the CUP. As an extra energy saving measure the excess heat from the exhaust of the cogeneration turbine is captured and used to generate steam which is then distributed throughout campus.
How much energy does NMSU use and what does this cost the University?
This is a somewhat complex and complicated question. The purpose of this web page is simply to present some general data, introduce some of the concepts that figure in to calculations of energy usage, and to give the university community some idea of the complexity of the subject of energy usage.
Between FY 2000/01 and FY 2006/07 the university used an average of 84,262,353.93 kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity per year and spent an average of $6,879,361.18 on electricity annually. As mentioned above, approximately 60% of the electricity used by NMSU is purchased from El Paso Electric while the other 40% is generated on campus at the OFS Central Utility Plant (See Figure 1).
Figure 1
In general, the total annual expenditure for electricity has been steadily rising over the past several years while our energy consumption has actually declined somewhat over the past three years (see Figures 2 & 3).
Figure 2
Figure 3
However, these figures can be somewhat misleading as they do not give any indication as to the distribution of the electricity used by NMSU (see Figure 4). More than half of the electricity used at NMSU is distributed to Instructional & General (I & G) buildings. These include classrooms, faculty offices, and administrative offices. Approximately 30% of NMSU’s electricity is distributed to auxiliary departments such as Athletics and food service providers. These departments are billed for their electricity usage so some of the overall electricity cost (see Figure 2) is offset by these departments. The rest of the electricity (approximately 17%) is consumed by what is known as inter-utility usage. Inter-utility usage is the electricity expended to run and maintain the CUP, pump in natural gas, etc.
Figure 4
The steady increase in the cost of electricity in spite of reduced consumption is due in large part to the ever increasing cost of natural gas (see Figure 5). Since the CUP uses a natural gas fired turbine to generate energy the cost and consumption of natural gas must be considered when evaluating overall energy expenditure. A vast majority of the natural gas used by NMSU is consumed by inter-utility usage (see Figure 6). In fact, approximately 52% of the total money spent on electricity since fiscal year 2000-2001 (an average of $3.6 million annually) has actually gone to purchase the natural gas necessary to run the cogeneration unit at the CUP.
Figure 5
Figure 6
As you can see the calculation of energy usage and cost to the university
is a complex and complicated process but these data should give you
some idea as to the considerations that go into the calculations as
well as an idea as to the current state of energy usage at NMSU. These
data also clearly illustrate the need for the broad application conservation
practices for both environmental reasons and financial reasons.