AFCESA helps bases fight rising utility costs Published Sept. 21, 2012 By Jennifer Elmore AFCEC TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Air Force has cut facility energy use 30 percent since fiscal 1994 but utility rates have increased nearly 100 percent during the same time period. Are we fighting a losing battle? Air Force civil engineers say no, and we can't afford to give up. "We're spending $1 billion a year on utilities," said Ken Gray, Rates and Renewables branch chief at AFCESA, Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., "but if we hadn't put all that effort into reducing our energy use, we would be spending $1.5 billion a year." AFCESA's Utility Rate Management Team is developing a plan to dive deeper into the data. The URMT is plotting electricity, natural gas, water and sewer rates for installations around world in an effort to identify those that pay much more than average. Gray said, "We're taking a more analytic view of trends in overall Air Force usage of utilities and the costs we're paying. We want to identify which bases are significantly higher than the rest and work through some of those outliers." He says there may be lessons learned at the lower price locations that can be applied elsewhere. Gray predicts evaluating the data won't be an easy task. The URMT will have to consider many variables such as delivery method, base location - guard bases located at airports may pay higher rates - and wet versus dry climates. "We're comparing the southwestern desert bases with bases in the northeast, which I know is not a real good comparison, but it's a starting point," said Gray. "We've never sat down and done this kind of analysis before." The URMT is also researching benchmark averages for utilities. For example, according to the American Water Works Association, the average water rate in the U.S. has been flat lined at $1.50 per 1,000 gallons for the past three years. However, the Air Force average water rate is $3.80. "If the U.S. average is really flat, why is the Air Force average going up at 10 percent a year, and why are we paying double?" questions Gray. The Air Force spends approximately $100 million a year on potable water. The highest rate of $37 per 1,000 gallons is at a Guard base in New York. The lowest price is at a Guard base in Mississippi. The URMT plotted natural gas prices and discovered the price is declining eight percent a year. "This is a case where we said, 'Wow, this could really be exciting because we can fight the assumption that utilities only go up,'" said Gray. While the URMT looks for outliers that need attention quickly, it continues regularly scheduled utility acquisition assessments. "Once every four years we will go to a base and look at all of its utility contracts, bills and how it processes payments," said Gray. "We ensure the Air Force is getting the optimum deal for utilities." This year the focus is on Texas and Florida bases. The URMT also plans to follow up with Colorado bases assessed in 2010 to find out whether its recommendations were implemented. Bases with scheduled assessments are asked to provide the current utility contract, two years worth of bills, and answer taskers sent from AFCESA to the major command. Gray says your efforts could pay off in a big way. "If we can influence the total $1 billion utility bill by just a half of a percent, that's $5 million a year we would save."