Energy Procurement and Utility Affairs Office

The Energy Procurement and Utility Regulatory Affairs Office, oversees the administration and purchasing of utilities and related services for SUNY campuses. Our office works with local regulated utilities, energy and fuel suppliers, state agencies and authorities, consumer groups, and local governments. The SUNY budget for utility expense is a significant portion of its overall costs. Our goal is to reduce costs incurred by our facilities and mitigate the volatility of prices, while working within the state regulatory and purchasing requirements.

Our office coordinates the aggregated purchasing of electricity and natural gas commodities. A significant portion of our efforts is to manage the daily operations of the SUNY Energy Buying Group (EBG), our aggregated purchasing group of electricity for most of our upstate campuses. The EBG members purchase their electricity supply needs at wholesale rates through direct participation in the NYISO markets. Since 2004, the EBG campuses have collectively saved over $40.6 million. Participation in this group is available to all state operated campuses, community colleges, and affiliated organizations.

The office also coordinates the purchasing of natural gas through aggregation of area loads which attracts more bidders to the competitive process. We provide the bidding and any other assistance concerning the natural gas market operations to all SUNY campuses and community colleges.

Another major function of our office is tracking the costs and usage of the campus utilities and vehicle fuel by using a web based system which allows our campuses and personnel to access their information from any location. The EnergyCap, Inc. program assists in the budgeting and usage tracking for energy efficiency goals and greenhouse gas monitoring. This software provides oversight of our 95,000,000 sq. ft. of building space within our 3,000+ buildings. This software allows us to benchmark our progress towards the Chancellor’s and Governor’s goals for SUNY, to reduce our energy use and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The Energy Procurement and Utility Regulatory Affairs Office’s responsibilities include:

• Coordinate energy procurement for commodity contracts such as electricity and natural gas which results in lower costs.
• Manages daily operations of its own electricity supply organization, SUNY EBG.
• Assisting campuses to develop utility budgets, usage estimates, historical cost, usage data and other statistical information.
• Provides the energy information necessary to comply with outside agencies and governmental reporting, including the Executive Order 88, Directing State Agencies to be More Energy Efficient and Environmentally Aware: “Green and Clean State Buildings and Vehicles”.
• Represent SUNY’s interests in utility regulatory issues for policy and pricing changes to other State and Federal energy organizations, such as FERC, NYSERDA, NYPA, LIPA, NYPSC, and the NYISO.
• Serves as the principal point of contact for SUNY and campuses with the all utility providers such as National Grid, NYSEG, RG&E, Central Hudson Gas and Electric, Consolidated Edison, NFGD, ORU, St. Lawrence Gas, New York Power Authority, Long Island Power Authority, PSEGLI, and municipal organizations.
• Assists campuses in tracking energy efficiency and projects costs as well as renewable energy generated on campuses.

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