The outlook for future electricity prices may be improving, but Penn State expects its bill at University Park to nearly double this year.
Price caps in Centre County will continue until the end of 2010 under a statewide deregulation program. But caps for Penn State’s main campus ended this year.
Last year, the university paid about $13 million for electricity at its core campus. Allegheny Power lifted Penn State’s caps this year, however, so the university expects its bill to go up about $12 million, putting it in the neighborhood of $25 million.
Penn State is no longer under the caps, because it paid for “stranded costs” — money the company invested in delivering electricity — in advance, saving the university interest charges. Once those costs were paid, Allegheny Power decided the university didn’t qualify for capped rates.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission upheld that decision. The university is appealing it.
In the meantime, the university has been taking steps to operate more efficiently, cut how much energy it uses and use alternate sources.
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