Tinker seeks proposals for advanced energy meters

  • Published
  • By Kevin Elliott
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Air Force Civil Engineer Center recently released a request for proposals for the installation of advanced energy meters at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. The smart meters are the first component of the Advance Meter Reading Solution, a program designed to equip Air Force base energy managers with a powerful tool to identify unprecedented energy-saving opportunities.

AMRS utilizes Wonderware software as the basic platform to integrate all metered buildings on an installation, allowing engineers to view energy consumption building-by-building in real time and make adjustments.

The first step, however, is metering.

"Historically, most Air Force bases had just one meter located at the perimeter fence," said Paul Carnley, AMRS program director at AFCEC. "The Air Force began metering its larger buildings in 2008. To improve the ability to monitor its energy use, the service began an initiative in 2010 to develop a software solution that would connect and manage meters on a common platform."

AMRS is being deployed at the Air Force's highest energy-consuming bases first, with a goal of capturing at least 60 percent of the Air Force's entire facility energy consumption, Carnley said.

Tinker is home to one of the three Air Force air logistics complexes, so it was a good candidate for smart metering and AMRS.

"As a depot base, Tinker is one of the Air Force's highest energy-consuming installations," said Lisa Fowler, AMRS project manager at AFCEC. "Focusing on the facility side of the base, our task was to identify the top 75-percent energy consumers of Tinker's facilities as candidates for metering."

Nineteen pre-qualified, private-industry businesses have 30 days to respond to the RFP.

Once meters are installed, AMRS will enable Tinker base energy managers to maximize energy consumption reduction like never before, Fowler said.

"The AMRS Wonderware software provides energy managers very granular information about base facilities, so they will be able to compare and optimize energy usage meter-by-meter," Fowler added. "That is, by definition, more efficient. AMRS is an incredible energy conservation opportunity for the Air Force."