Hanscom AFB releases notice of opportunity for ESPC

  • Published
  • By Jess Echerri
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released a notice of opportunity for an energy savings performance contract, or ESPC, for several utility systems at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts.

The notice is an invitation for the 14 energy service companies, or ESCOs, qualified by the Department of Energy, to submit their proposals for the project.

The proposed scope of the Hanscom ESPC includes energy conservation measures, or ECMs, for distributed generation; utility monitoring control systems; heating, ventilating and air-conditioning; and water and sewer conservation measures.

"We have a lot of energy-saving goals to meet and ESPCs are one of the tools we're using to get us there," said David Wong, the 66th Air Base Group chief of engineering at Hanscom. "So far the folks at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center have been really great."

Ultimately, civil engineers hope to offset the base's electricity usage by using distributed generation. Distributed generation are energy conservation measures, or ECMs, such as, but not limited to, cogeneration systems, microturbines and fuel cells.

"This ESPC will be a great opportunity for Hanscom to introduce new distributive energy generation technologies while also implementing other ECMs to reduce energy consumption base wide," said AFCEC Program Manager Morgan Hurst.

The ESPC model allows ESCOs to finance, design, construct and manage Air Force energy projects, and maintain the project systems long term. The Air Force pays the ESCO back over the term of the contract, about 10 to 25 years, with cost savings accrued through more energy-efficient equipment. In this way, ESPCs are a valuable and realistic tool the Air Force uses to meet energy-saving goals while staying within a budget.