Gen. Green: Energy smarts vital to mission Published Oct. 2, 2015 By (Editor's note: This article was excerpted from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center's Energy Express publication.) TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Air Force Director of Civil Engineers Maj. Gen. Timothy Green leads the Air Force engineering enterprise. He spoke recently with Energy Express, a publication of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, about the challenges and opportunities that he sees for Air Force Energy plans. What should the Air Force's military and civilian workforce know about our energy use? Energy management is an important part of everyone's job in the Air Force, whether they recognize it or not. We achieve mission assurance through energy assurance, which makes it our communal responsibility to get this right. This will require us to think outside the box and look across our whole portfolio for energy saving opportunities. It will require us to establish strategic partnerships with our utility providers and private industry to help us find the most optimal solutions. We also need to remember that opportunities for improving energy resiliency exist through many channels and that generators can be a solution but they are not the only solution. Technology is rapidly evolving and by leveraging strategic partnerships we will better enable ourselves to find the best solutions to achieving clean, resilient and cheap (as compared to market price) energy through third-party financing and reduced Air Force capital investment. What are some of the challenges you see facing Air Force facility energy, and what is needed to overcome them? Culturally, we are often challenged when seeking energy innovations. As with any very large enterprise, many of us want to maintain a business-as-usual approach to energy, whether as energy consumers, energy managers or Air Force policy makers. Strategically, as an Air Force, we must become more flexible in our "solution sets" and enlarging our energy project execution capacity. For example, we can look at ways to partner with the Army and Navy to leverage their lessons learned and increase project capacity, as we explore innovative agreements across the energy spectrum, from installing renewables to optimizing relationships with power providers. Tactically, we have to be much more proactive than we've been in the past about communicating across the entire Air Force energy team in order to overcome the organizational changes mentioned previously. What is the greatest current opportunity for the facilities energy program? I believe there are substantial low-cost/no-cost energy conservation opportunities at our installations. We need to continue to raise awareness on our installations about actions everyone can take to conserve energy in their homes and in our facilities. On a recent trip to Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, the automatic air conditioning temperature set point in my lodging room was 68.5 degrees Fahrenheit, well below an appropriate set point. I believe there are many examples like this across our Air Force. Installation energy teams should be educating our base leadership on the importance of energy conservation and potential energy-saving opportunities. Every dollar saved due to gained energy efficiencies is a dollar that can be used for the Air Force mission. We can also take greater advantage of existing funding programs. The Department of Defense Energy Conservation Investment Program (ECIP) competitively allocates military construction dollars for direct investment in energy conservation or production projects. For fiscal year 2016 the Air Force led the way with 15 of the 33 total ECIP projects awarded in the DOD, and I know we can do even better in fiscal 2017. Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESCs) are other great opportunities. An ESPC company agrees to finance, design, construct and maintain an energy system on an installation in exchange for a share of the savings the project generates. UESCs allow the Air Force to take advantage of energy management services offered by their serving utility companies, including energy- and water-efficiency improvements, renewable energy and demand reduction. We currently have ESPCs and UESCs in place at seven installations, while another 24 installations are pursuing them. Our goal is to have a total of $510 million in ESPCs and UESCs in place by the end of 2016. Installation energy managers should contact the AFCEC Energy Directorate for guidance on ECIP, ESPC and UESC requirements and processes. What are your thoughts on the role of the energy program in the Air Force civil engineering enterprise? Energy management is and will continue to be an important part of our business. There's more we can do to support the Air Force's facility energy goals for efficiency and renewable capacity while improving energy resiliency at our installations, but it takes the whole team working together to find these opportunities and implement them. As we work toward the targets set by our energy goals and mandates, we need to be smart about how we achieve them. We need to explore the opportunities that make the most sense given our fiscal environment, provide the best return on investment and support our ultimate goal: mission assurance through energy assurance. Read next week's Tinker Take Off for a story about Tinker AFB's energy efficiency efforts. October is Energy Awareness Month The 72nd Civil Engineer Directorate is hosting three energy awareness expos in October. The events coincide with the Air Force's Energy Action Month. This year's theme, "Mission Assurance through Energy Assurance," puts the Airman at the center of the campaign. The goal is to inspire the total force to be more efficient so they can give the Air Force an assured energy advantage in air, space and cyberspace. The first expo occurs today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Bldg. 3001. The second event moves to Bldg. 9001, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 16. The final expo will be held 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Exchange parking lot. The Tinker Energy Team will also have a table and hand out solar pedometers at the 72nd Air Base Wing's inaugural half-marathon and 5K fun run Oct. 24.