TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the commencement of a $243 million facility and energy modernization project at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, but the celebration was more significant than just recognizing the largest energy savings initiative in Air Force history.
“Today is the day we start telling people that we are taking positive steps in a big way to stop being No. 1,” OC-ALC Vice Director Wade Wolfe told an audience of about 250 people gathered March 29 at Bldg. 3001’s Hollywood and Vine.
“Think about that,” he continued. “To stop being the largest user of energy in the state of Oklahoma, the largest user of energy in all of the Air Force, the largest user of energy in all of the Department of Defense.”
The reason for massive energy retrofit involving more than 10 million square feet of industrial operations is an Energy Savings Performance Contract that is projected to save more than $626 million in energy and operational costs over 21 years.
The work at dozens of buildings will improve energy efficiency and production resilience at the maintenance, repair and overhaul complex for KC-135 aerial refueling tankers, B-1 and B-52 bombers, the E-3 AWACS surveillance and battle management aircraft, and nearly 10 different types of jet engines.
The project is a joint effort among the 76th Maintenance Support Group, the OC-ALC Energy Team, contractor Honeywell, Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Civil Engineer Center.
Pentagon officials attended, including Mark Correll, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety and Infrastructure. The Senior Executive Service member said the OC-ALC contract was a key part of meeting the White House’s $4 billion Presidential Performance Contracting Challenge at the end of 2016.
Meeting the goal was in doubt until between May and December, when “it became all about Tinker,” he said.
“This project, at $243 million, became the crucial project to see whether or not we’d be able to achieve that goal,” Correll said. “In fact, when it was awarded, that didn’t just put the Air Force over its goal, it didn’t just put the Department of Defense over its goal, it put the entire federal government over the top of the $4 billion goal.”
Brig. Gen. Martin Chapin, commander of the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, said the 21-month process to complete the contract was a relatively short amount of time to close a government contract of its size and scope.
“This has been just a fantastic example of teamwork, of a bunch of smart people getting together and knowing what their end state needed to be,” Chapin said. “When you have a 35 percent savings over 10 million square feet, that is a real, tangible difference. The money that gets saved in the Department of Defense now goes to do something else we need to do.”
Wolfe singled out Air Force Materiel Command Energy Manager Joseph Cecrle for his role in the project. The work is expected to cut the complex’s energy production by 35 percent a year, saving $20.5 million in operational and energy costs annually.
“If one man were to be considered the energy leader for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, it would Joseph,” Wolfe said. “He is my go-to person for energy. And Joseph absolutely has the right site picture: effectiveness first, but with conservation and resiliency an important aspect of his mission accomplishment.”
Energy Director Robert Gill of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., said the AFCEC worked with the Air Force Sustainment Center and the DLA on contract requirements for the Air Force and contractor.
The historic initiative “sets the bar for other bases around the Air Force to reach that stretch goal - hit that home run - in order to save more energy than we ever thought possible,” Gill said.