DECEMBER 3, 2021 – The Department of the Air Force won six Department-of-Energy-led 2021 Federal Energy and Water Management Awards for its significant contributions to energy and water efficiency and resilience, cybersecurity, distributed energy, and fleet management within the federal government.
“We are extremely proud to congratulate our six Air Force winners,” said Mark Correll, deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety, and infrastructure. “These awards are a testament to the ingenuity of our service professionals and their commitment to enhancing the resiliency, efficiency, and readiness of our installations to meet critical mission needs.”
The awards are part of the DoE’s Federal Energy Management Program and recognizes winners in five categories: projects, programs, contracting, career exceptional service, and the FEMP director’s award.
Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, won in the project category for its comprehensive energy resilience project, installing a combined 7 megawatts of high efficiency and renewable on-site energy to produce nearly 20% of all electric consumption on base. These cost-effective energy assurance measures directly support critical mission loads.
McConnell Air National Guard Base, Kansas, was also recognized in the project category for their state-of-the-art ground source heat pump system, which recovers and diverts waste heat from high-intensity buildings with steady power consumption and heats buildings with warm coolant. In fiscal year 2020, the system yielded more than $265,000 in energy cost savings and 12.5 billion Btu in electric and natural gas energy savings.
In the program category, FEMP recognized the energy management efforts at three Department of the Air Force bases:
Hill AFB, Utah, won for its ready Energy Management System, which helped to save 26 million kilowatt-hours of energy and more than $1 million in avoided utility expenses;
The Energy Program Management office at Robins AFB, Georgia, was recognized for its innovative structured management processes that are reducing energy consumption, improving energy resilience, and yielding over $493 million in project savings;
Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, won for reducing energy consumption by 10% and water consumption by 25% from fiscal year 2019 to FY 2020, even as the base continues to grow;
The FEMP also honored Robert Anderson, now-retired energy project manager for Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization, Military Construction, and Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program, for his exceptional contributions to the Department of the Air Force resilience. During his 37 years of federal career service, including the past 13 with the Headquarters Air National Guard Civil Engineering Technical Service Center, Anderson oversaw the execution of 103 energy-related projects, resulting in cumulative reductions in energy and water use intensity of over 21.7% and 30.91% respectively.
These winners are advancing mission success through energy assurance by helping to cut energy waste and bolster our nation’s energy independence, resilience, and security.
Full descriptions of each award can be read here.
By Air Force Energy