AF awards DOD's first ENABLE energy savings performance contract

  • Published
  • By Kevin Elliott
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Air Force Civil Engineer Center recently announced the award of the first ENABLE energy savings performance contract in the Department of Defense, an exterior lighting upgrade at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.

The effort includes replacing approximately 1,400 existing exterior high pressure sodium, metal halide and compact fluorescent wall pack lighting fixtures with high-efficiency light emitting diode models, as well as all associated lighting controls.

The new LED fixtures are projected to reduce Laughlin's annual energy usage by 2,947 million British Thermal Units, or 863,000 kilowatt hours, saving the Air Force an estimated $81,000 per year. Based on those savings, the $910,000 project has a 12-year simple payback period. The controls will include automatic sunrise and sunset programming based on local longitude and latitude, accurate to-the-minute scheduling and battery backup.

"Each of these new fixtures is higher efficiency than the legacy units we have around the base," said Capt. Carly Reimer, engineering flight chief at Laughlin. "The new lights will also brighten the base because LEDs produce a cleaner, whiter, brighter light, and at a lower wattage than traditional fixtures."

Maintenance efficiencies will also be gained from the new fixtures, Reimer said.

"We won't need to have so many different types of light bulbs and replacement fixtures on the shelves anymore. And when it comes to repair, we won't require such a large inventory of parts," she said.

The ESPC ENABLE program is a Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program initiative to provide "a standardized and streamlined process for small federal facilities to install targeted energy conservation measures in six months or less," according to the DOE website.

"ESPC ENABLE was designed to help agencies that may have smaller buildings; facilities that are sometimes left out of the normal performance contracts," said Kurmit Rockwell, ESPC manager at FEMP. "On bases with many buildings, some of the smaller facilities are included in larger, traditional ESPCs. The problem is, if you just have a building over here or over there, or don't want to assess an entire base, it is not cost effective to do a normal ESPC."

The accelerated timeframe of ENABLE projects is possible through the use of Government Services Agency Schedule 84, special item number 246-5, and its list of pre-qualified vendors and pre-negotiated pricing.

"Normal ESPCs allow a lot of customizing," Rockwell said. "The way we streamlined the ENABLE program was by standardizing the processes, there is not a lot of customization, there are a limited number of energy and water conservation measures, and templates have been developed to standardize the savings calculation and review process to make it very easy to do."

Per the FEMP website, ESPC ENABLE projects share some aspects with traditional ESPCs, including zero upfront capital costs to the agency, guaranteed energy cost savings that exceed annual payment, prescribed measurement and verification to ensure savings are achieved, and project assistance and technical support from FEMP experts.

"We're very excited about this opportunity," said Les Martin, AFCEC ESPC program manager. "Projects like this one provide substantial installation-level savings with a relatively quick project turnaround. We look forward to many more ... and, being the first ESPC ENABLE in the DOD is icing on the cake."

To learn more about the ESPC ENABLE program, visit http://energy.gov/eere/femp/espc-enable