[Equest-users] Questions about utility rates

[Chris Baker]

I was able to get this resolved.

For electricity I got an actual number from the client.

Fuel oil pricing for Alaska was more complicated and I'm hoping this info helps others in the future...

For starters, there is an army database called AEWRS that can be used to get energy info for army installations but to access it you need a CAC card and it is inaccessible to civilians.
Thanks to Bert Ward for finding this!

I've been told the numbers on this database are very generic and not specific to any one Army installation - which might not be helpful depending on what you're looking for.

http://army-energy.hqda.pentagon.mil/reporting/aewrs.asp

EIA apparently has very little cost data for Alaska because it is excluded from EIA's 'SHOPP' survey for heating fuels.
If you open the EIA "winter heating fuels" you see that Alaska has "no cost data" available.
http://www.eia.gov/special/heatingfuels/

But EIA does popup with some links to other sources of data.

One is the "Alaska Energy Data Gateway" - which has community specific energy data and even some data for military installations.
https://akenergygateway.alaska.edu/

There is also an Alaska community database which has energy data specific to certain cities/towns/villages in the state.
http://commerce.state.ak.us/cra/DCRAExternal/

I'm assuming since EIA doesn't have average heating fuel data, these links provided by EIA would be sufficient for estimating unit cost.

But ASHRAE isn't clear whether or not EIA has to be the source of the utility pricing in cases where the pricing is tracked by organisations other than EIA.
I've decided to move forward for now using this data and I'll address it should the need arise during review.

Maybe ASHRAE could even use some rewording to address this in the future?  That's an entirely different topic, however.

Based on what I'm seeing Alaska isn't the only state excluded from EIA's heating fuel surveys.
So I would assume these other states would also have programs to track heating fuel cost data at the state level.

Chris Baker
CCI CAD Drafter


From: Equest-users [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Chris Baker
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 4:22 PM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Equest-users] Questions about utility rates

I've been discussing this with some other fellow modelers lately but thought I would throw it out there.

I have a model that is complete but having some issues with figuring out utility rates.

I'm looking for some insight into what I could do here.

This project is a 13,000 square foot building on an army base here in Alaska.

For utility rates, you are supposed to either use the actual rates - or the EIA national average for your state if that number cannot be obtained.

The government (this is a military base) and their utility contractor have not been forthcoming with an estimated cost per KWH (and it isn't the structure they use to calculate costs).
Despite trying to reconnect with them today, we can't even get an estimated cost of electricity per KWH.

We even tried to contact the utility contractor directly, today, to get something to estimate with but they won't reveal any numbers for proprietary reasons.
It appears they charge the government an undisclosed monthly fee for providing electricity that can waiver depending on the coal market.

I'm not even sure how you would use that to calc out price per kWH nor do I know how accurate it would be.

So we are pretty much forced to go with the EIA state average for electricity (which is fine).

For fuel oil I will need to be using the EIA national average for my state of Alaska also.  However EIA doesn't appear to document average prices for heating fuel for Alaska.

The latest cost per gallon documented per EIA for distillate fuel oil is $3.18/gallon

I then found an online publication put together by the State of Alaska documenting the actual cost of heating fuel for 2014 in the project city of Fairbanks, Alaska.

That cost is $4.09/gallon.
This is an actual published number from the State of Alaska - not an estimate.

I'm kind of at a crossroads here.  I'm leery about using the 4.09 number because it is so much higher than the most current number documented by EIA.

In your opinion, would you stick with the EIA number of $3.18/gallon even though you know the actual figure is higher?

It would certainly eliminate potential review issues.

Chris Baker
CCI CAD Drafter


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