Fort Riley Engineer recognized at national federal level

KS, UNITED STATES

10.22.2020

Story by Collen McGee 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

Fort Riley’s Utilities Privatization Program manager, Larry Graham, was recently recognized through a national spotlight from the Federal Energy Management Program. In 2017, the FEDS Spotlight was created to recognize federal employees who have gone to extra effort to cut energy waste, reduce costs, optimize performance and advance America's progress toward energy independence, resilience and security.
To be selected, Graham had to first be nominated. But even being the one named on the packet, Graham gives a lot of credit to the people he works with.
“IMCOM (Installation Management Command) requested to put me in for that,” Graham said. However, he is the first to say it wasn’t just him. “It was a team effort. Hadassa (Baker) was really the point on that. We have a great crew – we have some very smart people.”
That group of smart people was charged with finding a way to accurately measure and bill on-post partners, like Corvias Military Living, for the utilities they consumed. Graham’s team also looked into finding ways to ensure energy resiliency
But Hadassa Baker, an engineer with the Directorate of Public Works, Energy Branch, said Larry was the one to dig in and he worked hard on this project “…it has been challenging with a lot of back and forth negotiations.”
That communication involved CORVIAS military living, the privatized utility companies and the Army. The goal, find a way to accurately bill for the actual amount of energy and water used by the Army housing provider. Until now, the Army hadn’t had a process that they could validate as a good fit between regulatory requirements and customer needs.
“That has been a challenge,” Graham said. “We are trying to make sure we comply with regs and policies … and be reimbursed for the service. We are not going to get more than what we deserve to be reimbursed for.”
Graham explained that the process he has developed is now at the level of the Assistant Secretary of the Army.
“If we can get it approved … then we will have a basis for the rest of the Army,” Graham said.
The second element of his nomination packet included a natural gas generator. The generator or, more accurately, a package of two generators, will provide both savings and energy resiliency. Graham credits this second piece as being the larger of the two that made up the award nomination.
“The main reason is for the resiliency piece,” Graham said. The generators are each “… 7.5 MW units – these things are massive. We are going to station them and tie them into substations so when we have a massive power outage we can supply most of the critical infrastructure and we can also use it to route power to other areas based on the commander’s direction.”
That flexibility will come in handy based on the nature of the electrical disruption.
“Not all of our facilities have backup generation,” Graham said. “This will supply a lot of those. The other great benefit of it is we will be able to reduce our electrical demand mode during the summer months, during something we call peak shaving. That’s when we use the most amount of electricity. We can run it off of natural gas which is a lot less expensive, reducing our demand from the commercial lines which saves us a lot of money.”
The DPW Energy Branch has recently been recognized at the Department of the Army level for their efficiency and now at the wider federal level also.
“That’s what we all do – it’s energy and it’s very interesting anyway,” Graham said. “The modern Army cannot operate without the amount of energy that goes into pushing them forward.”

• Date Taken: 10.22.2020
• Date Posted: 10.22.2020 15:05
• Story ID: 381554
• Location: KS, US