There’s good news and bad news, and this time it is found in the FY 2004 report on UCSB’s energy uses.

The campus "paid a historically high electricity bill this year—$6.2 million for state-funded programs," reports Jim Dewey, energy manager. However, the cost would have been much higher save for an "aggressive" campus energy conservation effort, he added.

For context, the core campus buildings used a high of about 83 million kWh in FY 1997-98, and that cost $5.1 million. In the year that ended last June, UCSB used about 61 million kWh—a 26 percent decrease—but paid $6.2 million.

Dewey’s report (http://energy.ucsb.edu) pointed out that, though the rate of increase slowed, electricity charges were over 10 cents a kWh in 2004, compared to averaging 6.4 cents a kWh during the five years between 1996 and 2001. He also pointed out that accelerating construction on the main campus means that total energy costs will rise even as the cost per square foot drops.

Natural gas numbers played a similar tune, with consumption dropping 32.5 percent between FY 1998 and 2004. Prior to 2001, the price for a therm of gas hovered around 30 cents; last year the price was 79 cents a therm (about a 19 percent drop from the previous year).

Offsetting some of the increased energy costs has been more than $2.5 million in grants and rebates earned over the past four years, said Dewey, crediting the Physical Facilities Energy Team for most of that.

The University is also pursuing a lawsuit, filed last month, against a number of major natural gas providers, claiming they manipulated retail prices during California’s energy crisis in 2000-2001. UC estimated that the providers’ "unfair and deceptive conduct" caused retail gas prices in the state to soar to six times the national average.