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Columbus AFB recognized with energy award

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Charles Dickens
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  As the Air Force moves to become more energy efficient many bases have taken the lead in conservation.

Columbus Air Force Base recently won the Air Education and Training Command's Energy Incentive Award of $250,000 for having the highest decrease in energy use of all AETC bases for the past quarter compared to the past three years' consumption.

"The executive order says we're supposed to reduce energy intensity by three percent each year," said Dr. Carl James, Columbus AFB's Energy Manager. "This first quarter our energy usage was 21.5 percent lower than last year."

The Energy Incentive Award was previously presented annually but was recently changed to a quarterly award. Columbus AFB was the first quarterly recipient of this award. The switch to quarterly awards allows bases that may be behind during the first quarter to still have an opportunity to win in the quarters to follow without worrying about falling too far behind.

"We've still got a long way to go, there's more energy to be saved," said James. "This award was not a 'one-hit-wonder', this is going to continue."

James said while replacing older equipment with slightly more energy efficient equipment and telling tenants to turn off devices such as lights and computers when not in use has some impact, it's not where the biggest savings come from.

"Over half of the energy use in a building comes from the heating, ventilation and air conditioning and water heating systems," said James. "The occupants have little control over these so that's where I chose to focus."

James continued by saying that the majority of energy conservation comes from working behind-the-scenes as opposed to directly at the source. Changing the way things are operated as opposed to just replacing equipment has given the best results for Columbus AFB.

Following the base's 2011 Energy Strategic Plan, many of the corrections made to increase energy efficiency came from recalibrating sensors, adjusting control set points and reprogramming controls. These changes were made to cut down on over-ventilation of areas, unnecessary heating and cooling of buildings and to reschedule the use of HVAC in areas that are unoccupied at specific times.

"My goal is to change the philosophy from using older checklists to going out and digging to find what's wrong and fix it," said James.

James stressed that the energy efficiency operation as a whole was a team effort and that it couldn't have been completed without the support of the entire team.

"I've been given all of the support from leadership and from those doing the repairs and I couldn't ask for a better situation," said James. "It's amazing to see people come together for a common cause and accomplish things that seem to be impossible."

Though the changes made were a team effort, individual Team BLAZE members can still contribute to conservation by turning off energy-consuming devices such as lights, computers and printers when not in use.