USAFA launches energy overhaul of iconic facilities

  • Published
  • By Kevin Elliott
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Defense Logistics Agency Energy released a notice of opportunity recently for a unique energy savings performance contract at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The purpose of the ESPC is similar to most - to discover and implement energy conservation measures for facilities across the installation. What sets this project apart, however, is USAFA's status as an educational institution and historic site.

"The academy is unlike any other Air Force installation," said Steve McLellan, energy program manager at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, the agency responsible for managing the USAFA ESPC. "It's a major college campus and, as such, the primary criteria for selecting an energy service company for this project will be the contractor's demonstrated experience executing an ESPC for a college campus.  While all buildings are available for consideration, academy staff wants the ESPC to focus on the cadet area and believes this is where the bulk of opportunities will be found."

Buildings in the cadet area include the cadet chapel, the Vandenberg and Sijan Hall dormitories and several other academic, dining, entertainment, administration and sports facilities.

"The academy has about 6.4 million square feet of facility space, and 4.5 million of that is in the cadet area, so that's a major target of opportunity," said Russell Hume, mechanical engineer at USAFA. "Also, 25 percent of that, 1.6 million square feet, is concentrated in two of our academic buildings, Fairchild Hall and the Consolidated Education and Training Facility."

Even for a university, USAFA's buildings and academic schedule are singular, according to Hume.

"Our facilities are unusual. For instance, our athletic complex has an ice rink and basketball arena with essentially no physical separation between them," he said. "USAFA has the largest dining facility in the Air Force, which feeds 4,000 cadets all at the same time, three times a day. These types of facilities present challenges. Also, we don't take the normal summer break that most universities do. Cadets are on campus most of the year, with very small breaks, so it is difficult to close buildings for renovations."

There are additional considerations. Founded in 1954 and expanded over the years, most USAFA facilities were designed in an iconic, International Style modernism. As such, they are historically significant and can only be altered in limited ways.

"The majority of the cadet area is in the National Historic Landmark District, so the buildings' features, and even the view-shed, are protected," Hume said. "Those will be contributing factors when considering the technologies and applications that can be used for this project. However, the ESCOs are clever and creative, so we're looking to their expertise to find valuable ECMs for this project."

The needs for innovation and industry best practices are why officials at the academy turned to the ESPC model to gain energy efficiencies.

"We've done a really good job at the academy of going after the 'low-hanging fruit' projects, those that are easy to do and gain quicker energy savings," Hume said. "But we need to go further now, and that's why we considered the ESPC process."

Under the ESPC model, energy service companies compete to finance, design, construct and manage energy projects, and maintain the systems long-term. ESPCs range from 10 years to a maximum of 25 years, with the Air Force paying the ESCO back over the term of the contract from cost savings garnered by the higher-efficiency equipment.

Kirk Weiss, USAFA's energy manager, sees this project as a chance to gain significant energy savings, even considering the academy's distinctive mission and architecture.

"The ESPC contract model brings in several structural components that make it pretty attractive," he said. "The incentives, accountability and financing all make this a great way to achieve our energy goals. And there is plenty of opportunity within these buildings, even setting aside the exterior skins, so we're excited."