As a DePauw alumna and a Duke Energy employee, I read with interest the recent column about rising energy costs.
While electricity costs at DePauw are not insignificant, they are less than 2 percent of the university's annual budget and unlikely to be the key driver in any tuition increase.
Also, the column implied the rate increases related to our new Edwardsport plant would in addition to current electric bills. More than half of any increase related to the Edwardsport plant is already part of customer bills, including those of the university.
We recognize, though, that every part of a university budget can eventually contribute to higher student costs, which is why we are currently exploring with the university energy efficiency improvements to reduce DePauw's power consumption and electric bills. Duke helps fund efficiency investments for large power customers such as universities, sharing some of the upfront costs of moving to high efficiency lighting and heating and cooling systems. The savings can add up when you consider that at Roy O. West Library alone there are 779 lights that are on for more than 5,000 hours per year.
We're interested in alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, too, but these sources have their challenges as well. Our business is unusual in that we have to produce our product the instant it is needed. So far our industry does not have the technical capacity to store large amounts of power from these intermittent energy sources. That's a problem because we need energy sources that are available around the clock.
Edwardsport is a key part of our responsibility to supply electricity 24/7, 365 days a year. It operates with far less environmental impact than the plant it replaces, while producing 10 times as much electricity.
And for students at DePauw, it means when you turn on your laptops or charge your cell phone, the power is there.
Angeline Protogere '84
