Tinker on track for big energy savings in 2015

Published Oct. 8, 2015
By John Parker
Staff Writer

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Tinker Air Force Base is on track to reap more than $500,000 in energy and water savings when the final figures for fiscal year 2015 are tallied, according to base officials.

The home of the heavily industrial Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex is projected to exceed the Air Force's 3 percent energy cutback goals for October 2014 through September 2015. Results for the final two months of the fiscal year are pending.

The estimated savings is good news during Energy Awareness Month at the base that is the Air Force's largest single-site energy user.

Base Energy Manager Al Romero, with the 72nd Air Base Wing Civil Engineer Directorate, said new technologies have reduced energy and water use significantly, but those can only go so far.

"It's up to each and every person on the base to do their part as far as energy conservation," Romero said. "Just be aware of the situation around you and try to conserve energy wherever possible. It's extremely important and it can go a long way."

Tinker energy managers have racked up a number of major successes in the last year with energy efficiency projects, Romero said.

Besides Department of Defense conservation funds, the base uses Energy Saving Performance Contracts, or ESPCs, to hire private-sector companies for energy efficiency projects, Romero said. The companies secure private funding for the projects and earn revenue from the base's cost savings.

Energy efficiency company Honeywell completed a steam decentralization project this year that reduced Tinker's natural gas consumption by 30 percent. The base's old and leaky steam pipe system was replaced with steam generation and other direct heating methods at dozens of facilities.

The Tinker Energy Team is preparing to launch a new ESPC that will affect all facility managers, Romero said. The ambitious project aims to improve energy efficiency in buildings, address old water, sewer and infrastructure problems and install renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar and alternative fuels, to upgrade the base's resiliency to withstand interruptions.

"We have a huge opportunity coming up in the near future in the fence-to-fence energy savings performance contract to get Tinker through a phase of cleaner energy and more energy security," Romero said. "It's a huge challenge and a lot of work, but once you get it started and once it gets going, it just carries itself."