Year in Review: 2018 SAF/IEE Installation Energy

  • Published
  • By Melissa Tiedeman
  • Air Force Installation Energy (SAF/IEE)
Pentagon, Va --  

As 2018 comes to a close, it is time to look back at some of Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety and Infrastructure's (SAF/IEE) Installation Energy Program’s accomplishments from the past year.

“We are exceptionally grateful for the hard work and dedication demonstrated by the entire Air Force energy team whose daily efforts ensure resilient, reliable and ready energy supplies continue to power our installations and warfighting capabilities,” said Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Energy, John Henderson. “Each day, the Air Force is improving its energy resilience, meeting the challenge of updating its energy infrastructure, and investing in workforce training.”

Highlights from the SAF/IEE Energy achievements in 2018:

Energy-as-a-Service Efforts: Achieved significant milestones within the SAF/IEE Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) initiative. Through the EaaS initiative, the Air force is looking to enter into a long-term arrangement with a single industry partner to provide an installation’s fence-to-fence electric power requirements that covers the full energy delivery chain from commodity to distribution to end use. In late 2018, the Defense Logistics Agency, with SAF/IEE, published a sole source justification and approval (J&A) to work with Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) at Altus Air Force Base (AFB) in Oklahoma; the Request for Proposal was sent to WFEC and the Air Force is currently awaiting the response. Altus AFB is one of two selected pilot site locations; Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts is the second pilot location.

Improved Resilience: Continued progress on improving Air Force energy resilience in 2018. Efforts and projects included: ten third party financing contract awards with a combined value of over $358 million, which will support energy resilience, facility enhancements, and will reduce power consumption by nearly 984 billion British thermal units annually; a 28 megawatt solar photovoltaic array at Vandenberg AFB; and the DoD’s first wind-powered microgrid capable of powering the 24/7 Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance mission of the 102nd Intelligence Wing located at Otis Air National Guard Base.

Mission Thread Analysis: In 2018 SAF/IEE further developed and tested its mission thread analysis process. As part of this process, the Air Force engaged a range of key stakeholders, including organizations outside the Pentagon and beyond the installation fence line – because in an interconnected, energy-driven environment, mission assurance through energy assurance requires a collaborative effort. In conjunction with work started in FY17, the SAF/IEE Energy team was able to engage nearly 50 stakeholder organizations over four mission thread workshops held at Vandenberg AFB, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Tinker AFB and Hill AFB; this effort augmented that being done by the Mission Assurance Tiger Team effort, of which SAF/IEE is a co-chair.

More Training Opportunities: The Air Force energy community increased their participation in education and training opportunities, which will help the Air Force in meeting their energy goals. At Energy Exchange 2018, nearly 200 Air Force participants shared their knowledge and energy best practices and participated in sessions related to resilience, energy technologies, cyber, policy and financing.

Water Resources Management: In 2018, SAF/IEE created a water resources management program. As one of their first efforts, the team worked with 15 Air Force installations to complete the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations & Environment’s Water Needs Assessment Tool (WNAT). The tool is part of a broader Air Force effort to gain an enterprise view of water needs and potential scarcity with the end goal of improving resilience and reducing water-related risk to mission. The pilot will raise the profile of water management and provide more actionable data on installations’ water requirements that can feed into future planning efforts.

Make sure to visit Air Force Energy at www.safie.hq.af.mil/InstallationEnergy and follow @AirForceEnergy on Facebook and @AFEnergy on Twitter to make 2019 a more resilient one!