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Fort Riley earns Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Award for Energy Efficiency
By Collen McGee
Fort Riley Public Affairs
Saving the Army money isn’t easy but it all adds up. In fact, the staff from the Fort Riley Directorate of Public Works, Energy Branch managed to add up more than $2.6 million in cost savings. That six-figure saving was just a part of what earned them the Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Award for Energy Efficiency.
The 41st Annual Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Awards were announced in a ceremony presided over by the Honorable Alex A. Beehler, assistant secretary of U.S. Army Installations, Energy and Environment; and Daniel Klippstein, assistant deputy chief of staff, G-9 Headquarters. The ceremony was held via Microsoft Teams, Oct. 21.
The physically distanced ceremony didn’t lessen the impact of the DPW energy team achievement. And, according to the DPW Director, the resulting award was the culmination of more than just cost-consciousness on the job. It also had to do with the way the efforts to privatize Fort Riley’s utilities were handled and the benefits that will be evident in future years.
“So this is a huge accomplishment,” said Jeff Williamson, Director of DPW. “The Energy savings performance contract coupled with the Utilities Privatization have culminated at a similar time frame bringing $1.3 billion to the Fort Riley utilities Infrastructure. While disparate actions, they have a common goal of energy and water efficiency. Both actions were originally scoped and planned in
2012 with the ESPC Phase I awarded in fiscal year 17, phase II in FY18 and phase III in FY 19 plus 3 of the 4 utilities – electric, water, wastewater and gas - distribution systems awarded in FY 18 and the gas awarded in FY19.”
The contracts not only released Fort Riley from the burden of management and maintenance on these systems but with their implementation, they made a way to guarantee energy savings into the future.
“The ESPC is designed to procure energy savings and facility improvements with no up-front capital costs or special appropriations from Congress paid for by the commodity savings,” Williamson said. “The UP contracts are to bring the distribution systems and plants up to code, resulting in safe and reliable utilities. As the contracts mature, we'll see additional savings beyond the current 14.8% in energy intensity reduction and 10.2% in water reduction. Conserving Army resources ensures that we can focus resources on Readiness.”
Hadassa Baker, an engineer with the Energy Branch said those significant savings included upgrades to about 280 facilities. She explained the varied individual projects included things like replacing outdated heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls; updating one of the central chiller plants; updating boilers, installing energy-efficient lighting and efforts in water conservation all played a role.
The nomination package explained that the total future savings for the term of the contract are expected to be around 128,999,949,575 BTUs in energy and 37,815,000 gallons of water. All of that adds up to around $92 million. Additionally, the efforts ensure disruptions can be overcome quickly.
“As the Army continues its focus on energy and water resilience, efficiency and affordability, we are very excited that our installation energy managers and stakeholders are also adapting to make smarter energy and water choices, ones that will not only save taxpayer dollars but more importantly allow installations to maintain critical operations during an unexpected grid outage,” Beehler said.
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2020 15:20 |
| Story ID: | 381555 |
| Location: | FORT RILEY, KS, US |
| Web Views: | 155 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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