Energy Awareness Industry Days brings savings to the forefront

  • Published
  • By Sarah Olaciregui
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  When budgets are tight, it's important for the federal government to step up and try to figure out the best way to save American taxpayers money. So, that was the focus of the Energy Awareness Industry Days at the Hanscom Conference Center Oct. 12 and 13.

Civil Engineering teamed up with Operational Contracting to invite 14 industry organizations, including utility providers, energy firms, design engineers and contracting entities to take part in the event. In addition, energy and facility managers and other government agencies attended to learn more.

The industry members discussed renewable energy, energy conservation and energy security.

During opening remarks, Tom Schluckebier, base civil engineer, talked to the participants about the president's Executive Order 13423, which calls for the federal government to reduce energy intensity by 30 percent based on a 2003 baseline and reduce water consumption by 16 percent based on a 2007 baseline -- all by 2015.

"We passed our 30 percent energy intensity reduction goal some time ago, but now we're seeing some backsliding and that's one reason we need your help," said Mr. Schluckebier.

He spoke to the industry partners about the Air Force's three energy initiatives: reduce demand through conservation and efficiency, increase supply through alternative energy sources and change the culture by making energy a consideration in everything we do.

"We have an opportunity here to increase supply of alternative energy through solar and geothermal," he said. "And we have been working on changing the culture through an energy competition that focused on electricity."

He also spoke about the challenges of energy reduction at the Electronic Systems Center.

"Being the Electronic Systems Center, naturally, we have a lot of data centers that have high energy intensity," he said. "We also have old infrastructure and we need to make it more energy efficient."

Although Mr. Schluckebier admitted that budget pressures were present, the Air Force recognizes that spending money on energy saving projects is useful because it saves money in the long run.

He encouraged the industry representatives to give ideas on how Hanscom and the ESC could operate more efficiently and how to collect data and interpret it.

"We need your help and this is a great place for us to learn how to tackle our problems," he said.

Throughout the two days, the industry members presented ideas, products and solutions to representatives from across the base, as well as members from the Massachusetts National Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - New England District, Westover ARB, Mass., and MIT Lincoln Labs.

The forum provided an opportunity to hear about a wide range of approaches ranging from geothermal wells and photovoltaics to advanced insulation techniques and facility retro-commissioning.

From this point, Operational Contracting will work with Civil Engineering and other base agencies to bring some of the energy saving solutions to Hanscom.

"Hanscom has always been a leader in energy conservation and we have the data to prove it," said Mr. Schluckebier. "But we know that we are on a journey and we will use all of the valuable information we heard to help us take the right paths as we continue to make progress toward optimal energy efficiency."