The electricity pricing structure in Texas has changed after deregulation (January
2002). The Energy Systems Laboratory has served as a technical consultant on
electricity purchases to several universities in the Texas A&M University System since
2001. In the fiscal year of 2006 Stephen F. Austin State University joined with the
TAMU campuses and agencies, and there are now 183 accounts in the Electric
Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) North, Northeast, South, West, and Houston
areas of Texas. From the 183 accounts, 9 Interval Data Recorder (IDR) accounts
consume 92% of the total load. The objective of this research is to find the most
economic price structure to purchase electricity for the Texas A&M System and Stephen
F. Austin University by analyzing various pricing scenarios: the spot market, forward
contracts, take or pay contracts and on/off season (tiered) contracts. The analysis was
based on the 9 IDR accounts. The prices for the spot market were given by ERCOT and
the other prices by Sempra. The energy charges were calculated every 15 minute using
the real historical consumption of each facility and the aggregated load of all facilities.
The result for the analysis was given for each institution separately, as well as for the aggregated load of all facilities. The results of the analysis showed that the tiered price
was the most economical structure to purchase electricity for each individual university
and for the total aggregated load of all 9 IDR accounts. From March 1, 2005 to February
28, 2006, purchasing electricity on the tiered price would have cost $13,810,560. The
forward contract, that is, purchasing electricity on a fixed rate, was the next cheapest
with an energy cost of $14,266,870 from March 1, 2005 to February 28, 2006, 3%
higher than purchasing electricity at the tiered price. The most expensive method to
purchase electricity would have been the spot market. Its energy costs would have been
approximately $18,171,610, 36% and 31% higher, respectively, than purchasing
electricity at the tiered price and the fixed rate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4376 |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Creators | Afanador Delgado, Catalina |
| Contributors | Turner, Dan W. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 841182 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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