Electric and gas prices are said to increase drastically this winter, to combat the high influx Eastern enters new electric contract to avoid paying extreme prices.

Eastern is currently at the end of its energy contract with Ameren and is paying the tariff rate agreed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Keeping with the same providers would have increased Eastern’s electric bills by 102 percent, however, Eastern’s new contract avoided such a dramatic increase, said Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs.

Teaming up with Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and Western Illinois University, Business Affairs combined the four schools energy usage and brought the 60-mega watt block to the open market for bids. The bid was won by Mid-America Energy and saved Eastern from a 65 percent increase. Instead, a 35 percent increase will take place after Jan. 1, Cooley said.

According to Cooley, Eastern consumes seven-mega watts of power annually to light the campus and residence halls. He said last year’s utility bill was $1.7 million, but this year it will increase to $2.3 million. The residence halls accumulates 54 percent of utilities used.

To pay for these costs there are two sources of revenue: state funding and student tuition. For the first time since 2002, Eastern has had an increase of over $600,000 in state funding, yet the bills not covered by funding are paid for by tuition. As the bills increase, tuition is likely to do the same.

Last year student tuition increased nearly 10 percent.

To drive down consumption and tuition fees Eastern is doing a number of things. Eastern has been part of a Guarantee Performance Contract and partnered with construction companies to replace boilers, chillers and windows. Part of the contract also replaces all shower faucets, pipes and toilets in the residence halls.

These upgrades decreased Eastern’s water consumption by over 7 million gallons and in 2003 Eastern was recognized by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for having lowest utility costs per square foot for all public universities.

Still, on-campus room and board has increased by 7.5 percent to compensate for other utilities, according to an article published in the Daily Eastern News archives.

Students living off campus are also affected two ways also: their tuition goes up, as well as, their monthly utility bills.

Chris “Che” Frederick, a sophomore psychology major, who lives in a six-bedroom house, expects his utility bills to be in the hundreds. He feels upset that more isn’t being done at the state level.

“I’m going to be a heat-Nazi with the thermostat,” said Fredrick. “It’s not my fault prices are going up, why should I have to pay for it?”

The coal burning plant that provides Eastern with heat is also costing more than ever. The coal burning plant on 7th street is out-dated and costing more money than it should, Cooley said. Steam from the coal burning plant heats all of Eastern’s campus and even cooks the food.

He said the plant used to burn a cheaper Illinois coal, but broken machinery costing $13 million to fix causes the plant to only burn a special, more expensive coal from Indiana. Now Eastern is searching for funds to fix the plant, or better yet build an efficient, new plant. The new coal burning plant that is in Eastern’s Master plan would even provide electricity, eliminating the need for outside utility providers.

A university contact that expired in June raised the price of coal from $57 a ton to $82 a ton. The Illinois coal that was used only a couple of years back only costs $35 a ton.

The 2006-07 budget had anticipated a 25 to 30 percent increase in utilities, Cooley said. The Budget Office prepared for these increases but will still have to do more trimming and economizing,

“We’re praying for a warm winter,” Cooley said. “I think we’re very close on budget for this year and we’re very fortunate to have this new contract.”