Fuel procurement strategies for the New York State Office of Mental Health - a case study
In 1990, the Governor of New York issued Executive Order No. 132, directing all state agencies to reduce energy consumption by 20% by the year 2000. The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) has aggressively pursued this goal through many initiatives. While major savings are being generated through programs to reduce energy consumption, it is equally important to reduce the cost of energy through planned procurement of the fuels used at each facility. OMH has established a fuel procurement program, managed by Novus Engineering, P.C. (Novus), that is devoted to assuring that facilities choose the most economical fuel each time fuel is purchased. The program is unique among state agencies in New York because of the close and open working relationship between OMH, NYS Office of General Services (OGS), and Novus. By working together to provide pricing information to facilities in a timely manner, this program has been extremely successful in minimizing the cost of more than 2.4 million dekatherms of fossil fuels consumed annually. At the 17 OMH facilities that are dual-fuel capable, there are at least three fuel choices available whenever fuel is purchased: fuel oil, utility sales gas, and transportation gas. The costs of these fuels are constantly changing. Oil prices under state contract are adjusted bi-weekly, utility sales gas and supplemental gas prices change monthly, and transportation gas prices change daily. Novus tracks the sales gas and gas transportation rates of twenty-four service classes under ten gas utilities throughout the state. Dataloggers are being installed at all dual-fuel facilities to provide up-to-the-minute data on fuel consumption. A system has been developed for tracking and managing transportation gas bank balances. Individually-negotiated sales gas rates have been secured for some OMH facilities.
- OSTI ID:
- 227081
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951173-; TRN: 96:000139-0045
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 18. world energy engineering congress, Atlanta, GA (United States), 8-10 Nov 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Vision 2001: Energy & environmental engineering; PB: 638 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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