Keesler AFB utilities to be privatized

  • Published
  • By Kevin Elliott
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida --  The Air Force Civil Engineer Center and Defense Logistics Agency Energy recently issued a request for proposals for a comprehensive utilities privatization contract at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. The project includes all four major utility systems on the base: electric, natural gas, water and wastewater distribution.

DLAE, the contracting agent for the project, defines utilities privatization in the request for proposals, or RFP, spell out as, "the transfer of ownership and responsibility for the operations, maintenance, repair, future upgrades and future utility systems replacements."

This total transfer, or conveyance, of utilities systems ownership to a third party is one of the main advantages of utilities privatization, said Rick Weston, AFCEC utilities privatization chief.

"The Air Force becomes a paying customer, which means all maintenance and operation costs of the systems rest with the company," Weston said.

Keesler, built for the Army Air Corps in 1941, covers 1,960 acres, with an additional 18 acres of easements for runway clearance and 45 acres for gas lines. The base has 1,028 family housing units and 322 non-housing facilities.

The UP project involves conveying more than 440 miles of electrical lines with 455 pad-mounted transformers, 51 miles of natural gas lines, part of which runs 10.45 miles from a utility-owned meter in Gulfport, Mississippi, to the base, and includes 287 regulators with 372 valves. There are also 69 miles of water piping with 402 hydrants, and 51 miles of wastewater piping with dozens of lift stations and nearly 1,000 manholes, as well as all ancillary equipment and facilities associated with these systems.

The privatization will be a welcome relief for Keesler's base maintenance staff, said Tim Laferty, AFCEC deputy UP manager.

"There are only three government employees responsible for maintaining the entire base construction and maintenance infrastructure," Laferty said. "Having the operation and maintenance of all of Keesler's utility systems managed by a private company will relieve them to focus on other issues at the base."

Once proposals for the Keesler UP are submitted, DLAE will negotiate with offering companies prior to submission of final proposals. After a review process, if the project is deemed economically advantageous to the Air Force, it will be awarded. The Keesler UP is projected for an award decision in fiscal 2017. 

The 1998 Defense Reform Initiative Directive 49 mandates all U.S. military installations privatize their utilities systems where feasible and economically viable. Since then, the Air Force has been in the process of privatizing most of the utility systems on its bases in the continental United States. Over the past 16 years, 66 systems have been privatized, amounting to a $3.6 billion value and a cost avoidance of $511 million for the Air Force.

To learn more about Air Force utilities privatization, visit: http://www.afcec.af.mil/energy/utilitiesprivatization/index.asp