Campus Energy

Where Does Campus Electricity Come From?

Mount Holyoke College buys most of its electricity from South Hadley Electric Light Department, SHELD, a municipal utility. One of Massachusetts' 40 consumer-owned utilities, SHELD has been supplying electricity to Mount Holyoke since 1914. 

About 6% of our electricity is generated on-campus by the cogeneration system located in the central heating plant.  The steam generated to heat the buildings passes through a backpressure steam turbine, which spins a generator set. This highly efficient setup runs during heating season (-6 months per year) to generate about 600,000 kWh. Since its installation in 1986, this system has saved the college over $1 million.

SHELD gets its power through the New England Electric Grid, operated by ISO-New England and NEPOOL. The mix of generation resources supplying electricity to the New England grid is primarily from Natural Gas (43%), followed by Coal (25%), Oil (15%), and Nuclear (12%). 

Nationwide, we rely much more heavily on Coal (51%) which is followed by Nuclear and Natural Gas (both 19%). 

The good news is that New England's reliance on Natural Gas instead of Coal means fewer emissions. Our generation of greenhouse gases, 0.675 lb/kWh, is half the national average of 1.43 lb/kWh. Burning coal also releases a host of other pollutants into the atmosphere, including NOx (smog), SOx (acid rain), and Mercury (a potent neurotoxin). 

The bad news is that our reliance on fossil fuels is expensive and subject to rapid price fluctuation, particularly in winter when demand is high for heating. Fuel shortages, along with congestion of the electric grid in Northeast Massachusetts and Southwest Connecticut, adversely affect the reliability of our power supply. 

Reducing power consumption and peak demand, along with building smaller distributed cogeneration systems, reduces the environmental impact of electricity generation while, at the same time, improving the reliability of our electric grid.  Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute often cites energy efficiency and decentralized generation as the two most capable and economically-attractive options for strengthening America's energy infrastructure. At Mount Holyoke College, we are actively pursuing both. 

For more information:
2004 Student Project: History of Power on Campus (PDF)

References:

SHELD large general service electric rate form (PDF)

A.B. Lovins, "Nuclear power: economics and climate-protection potential," 9/11/05 (PDF)

A.B. Lovins, "More Profit With Less Carbon," Scientific American 9/05 (PDF)

Energy Use

This chart shows Mount Holyoke College's energy use over the past decade, corrected for total building gross square footage [GSF]. Building square footage has increased 6% [1,714,754 to 1,824,000] since 1995.

Thermal use [red] is also corrected for winter weather conditions, using degree days. Thermal energy use has actually declined, down 10% over the past 10 years. The increased load for new buildings has been offset by installing more efficient systems and advanced controls, while using better windows and insulation in may existing buildings.

The average Massachusetts home uses 800 gallons of home heating oil per year. Last year, MHC's thermal use was 154,000 decatherms*, equivalent to 1400 homes.

In contrast, elecrical use [blue] has climbed steadily over the past decade, up 61% between 1995 and 2004. This is primarily due to the increase in summer cooling, MHC now has a central chiller plant, and seven buildings are fully air conditioned. The proliferation of window air conditioners, computers, and other office machines across campus has also increased our electrical appetite.

According to the EPA, the average US home uses 10,900 kWh per year of electricity, 11% of which is for lighting. MHC's annual use is 16 million kWh, enough to light approximately 13,000 homes.

* 1 decatherm = 1 million Btu

Energy Cost

Recent implementation of energy conservation measures are helping ease our appetite for energy.

This chart shows Mount Holyoke College's energy cost over the past decade, again corrected for total building square footage. It references the energy consumption on the page above, multiplied by the cost per unit of energy. 1995 is the baseline year. Present values are 1.6 for electric and 3.5 for thermal.

Although thermal use [red] has actually declined 9% over the past decade, the unit cost has increased dramatically as oil and gas prices have skyrocketed. Between 1995 and 2005 costs increased by a factor of 3.4. Since the close of the 2005 fiscal year, fossil fuel prices have risen 24% and are projected to rise 29% in 2007. This would bring the total cost increase to 5.5 times our 1995.

Unit prices for electricity have been stable over the past decade, the price we paid in 2005 was actually less than what we paid in 1995. This has spared a compound impact from the 60% increase in use. However, electric prices have climbed steadily in 2006, rising by 40%. If this increase holds, 2007's cost will be more than double that of 1995.