Photo By Dennis Bohannon | Mr. Jordan Gillis (front, far right) and Brig. Gen. Joy Curriera (front, center) pose...... read more read more
DENVER, Colo. -- The 2019 Annual Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Awards were presented to ten recipient organizations, garrisons and individuals in recognition of their accomplishments during fiscal year 2018 during a ceremony held August 22, 2019.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, Mr. Jordan Gillis and the Director of Operations for the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, Brig. Gen. Joy L. Curriera presented the awards on behalf of the Secretary of the Army following the closing ceremony of the 2019 Energy Exchange at the Colorado Convention Center.
The awards program was established in 1979 to recognize installations, small groups, and individuals who make significant achievements in energy conservation and water management in support of Army readiness.
The program encourages stewardship of energy and water resources, promotes innovative and effective program management, and reinforces the importance of sound investments in energy and water facilities and infrastructure to improve mission readiness. It recognizes significant achievements in advancing the Army's energy and water program strategic goals, improving energy security and sustainability on Army installations.
In presenting the awards, Mr. Gillis and Brig. Gen. Curriera congratulated award winners for their leadership in federal service. Both cited accomplishments of this year’s awardees are truly impressive. The Army has significantly improved energy resilience and reduced facility energy and water consumption on Army installations largely because of the initiative, innovation, and commitment of the award winners.
This commitment extends across the Federal government, and the Army is helping to lead the way in improving energy resilience, advancing energy efficiency, deploying renewable and alternative energy, improving water management and utility infrastructure, and reducing costs.
From energy resilience, water conservation, innovation and new technology, effective energy programs and the exceptional individuals – the awardees are doing the hard work that needs to be done – not only to make our Army installations resilient, efficient and responsible stewards of our nation’s energy and water resources, but to make our country safe and secure.
The awards were presented and recognized efforts in three award categories, Energy and Water Resilience Program Effectiveness, Innovation and New Technology, and Individual Exceptional Performance.
The awardees are:
For Energy and Water Resilience Program Effectiveness
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Knox, Kentucky – Mr. Patrick Walsh, Mr. Robert Dyrdek and Mr. Mark Richerson.
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hunter Liggett, California – Mr. Gennaro Messina, Mr. Kerry Norman, Mr. David Fullmer, Ms. Melissa Foslien and Ms. Sharon Usrey.
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Campbell, Kentucky – Mr. Mark Linkous and Mr. Robert Ott.
• U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, Hawaii – Mr. Keith Yamanaka, Mr. Ted Robinson, Mr. Santiago Hernandez, Ms. Casey Hiraiwa and Ms. Krista Stehn.
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Riley, Kansas – Mr. Michael Witmer, Mr. Hadassa Baker, Mr. Daniel McCallister and Mr. Jeffrey Williamson.
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Stewart, Georgia – Col. Jason Wolter, Mr. William Ingram, Mr. Edward Forestel and Mr. Fred Pierre-Louis.
• U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives, Washington, D.C. – Mr. Jack Surash, Mr. Michael McGhee, Ms. Krista Stehn, Ms. Monica Malia and Ms. Joyce VanSlyke.
For Innovation and New Technology
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachuca, Arizona – Mr. Jack Porter Jr. and Mr. Tim Zimmerman
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Irwin, California – Col. Larry France, Mr. Garth LaComb, Mr. Muhammad Bari, Mr. Christopher Woodruff and Ms. Patricia Kimura
For Individual Exceptional Performance
• U.S. Army Garrison Fort Knox, Kentucky – Mr. Patrick Walsh
Award Summaries
Energy and Water Resilience Program Effectiveness
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Knox, Kentucky – Mr. Patrick Walsh, Mr. Robert Dyrdek and Mr. Mark Richerson
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Knox formed an in-house team that analyzed several options to address and overcome the installation's power supply vulnerability. The team worked with contracted partners to develop short and long-range strategies that eventually snowballed into a major seven-year energy security and independence project that was the catalyst for the Fort Knox operational Energy Security and Independence System (ESIS) local gas fueled electric generation and related Micro Grid. The team research revealed Fort Knox's location coincided with an enormous natural reservoir of possibly biotic methane gas produced from beneath the earth's surface. The reservoir's depth suggested trillions of cubic feet of available methane gas expected to last more than 30 years. Analysis of the methane reservoir, and navigating the statutory and regulatory hurdles, took several years. Results revealed methane was available to Fort Knox. The final integrated project that resulted was the multi-faceted Fort Knox energy independence plan that included six new electric grid generating facilities using natural gas-powered generators. The byproduct of the electricity-producing generators is heat captured as combined heat and power (CHP). CHP systems work to heat and cool adjacent buildings, provide demand backup power, and optional primary capacity to the post power grid.
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hunter Liggett, California – Mr. Gennaro Messina, Mr. Kerry Norman, Mr. David Fullmer, Ms. Melissa Foslien and Ms. Sharon Usrey
Annual Cost Avoidance: $1,000,000
Energy Saved: 4,950 million BTUs per year.
The U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hunter Liggett is one of the Army’s nine installations selected to pilot Net Zero Energy by 2020. Fort Hunter Liggett has aggressively worked a multi-strategic approach to move away from fossil fuels and focus on energy efficiency and renewable electrical energy for operational use. The Net Zero Energy plan will consist of on-site renewable power generation through solar power generation and battery storage. Fort Hunter Liggett is implementing a multi-phase 8 Megawatts (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) and microgrid system to shift from utility-provided electrical energy use to more resilient on-site production. Three MW of solar generation and a one MWhr battery energy storage system have been installed as Phase 1. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers April 2019 awarded a 5 MW microgrid. Fort Hunter Liggett have achieved savings such as 64 percent reduction in energy use intensity from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2018; 20 percent reduction in energy consumption from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018; 40 percent increase in on-site renewable energy generation between fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2018; 166 percent additional on-site renewable energy will be generated from the 5 MW PV array being awarded in fiscal year 2019 and 25 percent reduction in facility potable water use intensity from fiscal year 2007 to fiscal year 2018.
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Campbell, Kentucky – Mr. Mark Linkous and Mr. Robert Ott
Annual Cost Avoidance: $179,709
Water Saved: 14.25 million gallons per year
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Campbell through the innovative use of metering data and capabilities developed a water resiliency program that reduces waste, controls cost, and establishes resilience. Fort Campbell 2015 through 2018 successfully reduced the installation’s water by 19 percent. In 2017 construction of a redundant potable water supply, line was completed and this project gave the installation two separate sources of potable water. The use of the meter data contributed to a funded project that replaced plumbing fixtures in the Warrior in Transition Barracks, meter data identified a 16,500 gallon per day leak on the 1st Brigade’s Central Energy Plant distribution system, and a major leak in a vehicle maintenance facility complex. Fort Campbell’s effective water conservation and management have mitigated potential costs such as secondary energy costs associated with water and waste water plant operations, chemical costs attributed to plant operations, cost avoidance for leaks that open up sinkholes in Fort Campbell’s karst geology damaging or jeopardizing structures and other infrastructure, and premature failure of mechanical systems.
U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, Hawaii – Mr. Keith Yamanaka, Mr. Ted Robinson, Mr. Santiago Hernandez, Ms. Casey Hiraiwa and Ms. Krista Stehn
Annual Cost Avoidance: $12.01 million per year
Annual energy savings: 61,107 million BTUs per year
Water Saved: 4 million gallons per year
U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii Energy Resiliency Program approach increased on-site energy resources from 31.8 MW to 85.5 MW, increased renewable energy output from 10.8 GWH to 45.8 GWH, and implemented efficiency measures that increased on-site energy capacity from 10 to 13 days for Wheeler Army Airfield, Schofield Barracks and Field Station Kunia. The program also has created 51 MW of resources to help stabilize and restore the entire Oahu grid to increase resilience for 19 Army installations and all DOD installations to include Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam that supports Army deployment. These achievements have institutionalized U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii into Hawaii’s Integrated Grid Planning process and influenced enactment of State law to facilitate microgrids. This program integrates application of renewable technologies, efficiency improvements, demand reduction and utility scale strategies to both reduce costs and increase the level, duration and breadth of energy and water resiliency. The program balances firm and variable resources to insure a net benefit to grid stability and applies demand and energy reduction measures to increase on-site energy reserves, reduce costs and/or finance resilience measures.
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Riley, Kansas – Mr. Michael Witmer, Mr. Hadassa Baker, Mr. Daniel McCallister and Mr. Jeffrey Williamson
Annual Cost Avoidance: $5,138,977/ also $2,000,000 gas savings
Annual energy savings: 272,721 million BTUs per year
Water Saved: 37.8 million gallons per year
Fort Riley Energy Resiliency plan consists of assured access, maintaining reliable infrastructure systems and effective system operation. The Utilities/Energy Branch developed a long-term vision enabled by solid engineering guidelines and plans. The analysis first began with a model of what resiliency even means for Fort Riley and the feasibility of achieving it. From there, planned energy reductions through ongoing energy modeling and forecasting; local guidelines were developed to assist designers; a long-term renewable energy plan was evaluated and energy conservation has been inserted as a primary goal in renovations on post resulting in funding for large projects that will allow for sizable energy reductions. The energy program focused on four primary components: energy planning, energy projects, equipment maintenance and energy culture.
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Stewart, Georgia – Col. Jason Wolter, Mr. William Ingram, Mr. Edward Forestel and Mr. Fred Pierre-Louis
Fort Stewart’s Energy Team had a vision and technical support to develop the Army’s first Energy Resilience Readiness Exercise (ERRE). An ERRE is a planned, simultaneous loss of utility power to a subset or to the entire installation, in which backup generation must be black-started and run at full operational load for an extended period. The ERRE at Fort Stewart executed 15 June 2018 where electrical power to the entire installation -- except for the ranges, commissary, and housing -- was shut off from 5:50 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. This provided the opportunity for Fort Stewart to assess the performance of their backup power assets during a black start and 3.5-hour operation to identify any capability and performance gaps in meeting their mission requirements. By conducting this ERRE, Fort Stewart was able to validate their resilience posture in an outage scenario. The ERRE uncovered many deficiencies in backup power to critical missions that can now be addressed.
U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives, Washington, D.C. – Mr. Jack Surash, Mr. Michael McGhee, Ms. Krista Stehn, Ms. Monica Malia and Ms. Joyce VanSlyke
Annual energy savings: 1,111,267 KWh per year
Demand Response: $92,000 per year
The Army’s Office of Energy Initiatives (OEI) under the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, serves as the Army’s central program management office for the development, implementation, and oversight of privately financed, large-scale, energy projects focused on enhancing energy resilience on Army installations. OEI’s project portfolio contained 27 projects at 18 installations; projects at 14 of these installations will provide “islandable” capability to power multiple critical missions in the event of a grid outage. Completed projects includes 11 projects at 11 Army installations in seven states with a total production capacity of more than 325 megawatts (MW). Recent projects include a solar energy and battery storage project at Redstone Arsenal; 50 MW biofuel power generation plant at U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii; 7 MW solar energy project at Anniston Army Depot; 10 MW Alternating Current (AC) renewable solar energy generation project at Fort Rucker; a combined solar and wind energy generation project at Fort Hood; a largescale 30 MW solar project at Fort Benning; and a large scale solar energy project at Fort Huachuca.
Innovation and New Technology
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachuca, Arizona - Mr. Jack Porter Jr. and Mr. Tim Zimmerman
Annual Cost Avoidance: $2,037,480 per year
Annual energy savings: 147,861 million BTUs per year
Annual on-site energy generation: 33,914,222 kWh per year
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachuca demonstrated innovation in fiscal year 2018 through utilizing different contracting acquisition tools and agreements to attain a combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the installation to be the first building block for a mission critical microgrid. This included an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) optimizing procurement cost of the natural gas commodity and construction of a high-pressure gas line to support the CHP. The contract focused on eight different energy conservation efforts: Combined Heat and Power Plant consisting of two 2 MW natural gas driven generators, absorption chillers, controls, and boilers; programmable thermostats; demand-controlled ventilation; interior lighting retrofits; exterior lighting retrofits; lighting controls; conversion of tower fans to variable speed and converting fans and pumps to variable speed. Fort Huachuca energy team accepted the challenge to bring energy security and resiliency to the installation with limited funding available and the result was the collaboration and three years of perseverance to utilize a third-party financing option that would cash flow and allow the construction of a combined heat and power plant.
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Irwin, California – Col. Larry France, Mr. Garth LaComb, Mr. Muhammad Bari, Mr. Christopher Woodruff and Ms. Patricia Kimura
Annual Cost Avoidance: $659,292
Annual energy savings: 15,637 million BTUs per year
Water Saved: 48.8 million gallons per year
Annual on-site energy generation: 4,583,420 kWh per year
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Irwin always protecting and serving it personnel just received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the new Weed Army Hospital. Fort Irwin opened the doors on the 216,000 square foot state of the art facility to the community on 1 Oct. 2017. The new hospital with 20 beds combines the functions of a hospital and clinics. This created a one-stop facility meeting Fort Irwin's needs for tertiary care, emergency medicine, clinical support activities, and laboratory and pharmacy services. To support patient recovery and reduce stress, a majority of the facility including all patient rooms, working spaces and guest areas feature abundant natural light and panoramic views of the Tiefort Mountains and surrounding terrain. This was a Military Construction project that included seven energy conservation measures and also included a 1.2 Mega-Watts ground mounted photo-voltaic (PV) array that grew to 2.4 MW. The PV array received an incentive of >$1.5 million and a 14.5 year payback. During the day, this array actually push power out onto Fort Irwin's local grid, reducing Fort Irwin’s usage during peak times. The hospital then withdraws this energy at night.
Individual Exceptional Performance
U.S. Army Garrison Fort Knox, Kentucky – Mr. Patrick Walsh
Mr. Patrick Walsh is a trailblazer, innovator, pioneer, and above all leader in his demonstrated commitment to set the standard followed by the staff at Fort Knox in working towards energy, water, and/or fleet efficiency and resilience. Mr. Walsh is the current Director of Public Works at Fort Knox. He has over 38 years of federal service all within the DPW at Fort Knox improving the energy and utility resiliency of the installation. Mr. Walsh, a Mechanical Engineer, accomplishments have included projects such as gas and water line replacements that reduced utility consumption by making infrastructure more reliable; energy efficient Ground Source Heat Pumps; standardized using 500 feet deep geothermal wells at 20 feet for 6,000 wells over 100 fields with no reported failures or leaks; the first on-site Energy Monitoring and Control System; and the underground natural methane extraction wells program which fuels a major portion of Fort Knox’s Energy Independence and Security System (ESIS) Micro-grid. Under Mr. Walsh’s guidance Fort Knox October 2018 tested the ESIS MicroGrid via a complete disconnection of the Fort Knox power feed causing the entire base to go dark. The test was a complete success and demonstrated Fort Knox as being the first base to be able to run 100 percent self-contained without outside utility connections for 14 days minimum requirements.
| Date Taken: | 09.03.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2019 11:32 |
| Story ID: | 338309 |
| Location: | US |
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