Edwards Civil Engineers Celebrate Energy Reduction this Earth Day

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Elmore
  • Air Force Facility Energy Center
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Energy and environmental engineers will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day April 22 by reflecting on past energy reduction successes and planning future ones.

"I feel passionate about the mission for the base," said Col. Jerry L. Gandy, 95th Air Base Wing commander. "Part of that mission is not only doing it effectively, but being able to do it efficiently."

Edwards showcases a facility cooled by large ice machines, roofs designed to reflect the desert heat, and a high-tech room that controls the temperature in hundreds of buildings throughout the installation.

Engineers here conserve energy with help from the supervisory, control and data acquisition (SCADA) room. Computers in the SCADA room give them control of 25 percent of base buildings.

In 2009, Edwards reduced energy consumption four percent saving more than $620,000.

"We pay a huge demand charge in the summer," said James Judkins, director of the 95th Civil Engineer Directorate. "Between noon and six in the evening during the summer our rates jump tremendously. If we can drive our demand down during those hours, we avoid a lot of expenditures. We use the SCADA system to do that. We might cycle buildings on and off to the point where people in the building never know what's going on, and we'll be able to save thousands of dollars every day."

"This is the place where America's aviation was grown, perfected and then sent out for our men and women to be able to use in our nation's defense," said Colonel Gandy.

That same sort of leading edge technology, the colonel said, can be found across the base in places like the thermal energy storage plant that helps cool the 95th Air Base Wing Consolidated Support Facility. Rather than refrigerate air during the day when Edwards has peak demand, the thermal energy storage plant makes ice at night, when it costs pennies per kilowatt hour, and then blows air across the ice to cool the building. It saves the base an estimated $16,000 a year. Edwards engineers plan to add smaller versions to the rooftops of several buildings.

An agreement with the local utility provider also makes a big difference. "We essentially put in a bid for how much energy we think we're going to use in conjunction with Southern California Edison, and if we beat that, we get a rebate on our energy bill," said Colonel Gandy. "We earned thousands of dollars in rebates last year with our demand bidding program."

Renewable energy is also on the horizon for Edwards. Engineers have identified 10 facilities for solar rooftop development. They're also in negotiations to allow a private company to lease more than 3,000 acres of land to develop a solar farm.

Saving water is another important goal. Gravel and native bushes that require very little watering have replaced grassy areas in Edwards neighborhoods.

"We've reduced our water use in 2009 almost 25 percent," said Enrique Torres, base energy manager. "In our military family housing areas we've also partnered with Southern Cal Edison to have the incandescent light bulbs in all 700 houses replaced with new compact fluorescent lights."

Changing the bulbs could save Edwards an estimated $50,000 dollars a year.

"It's getting people to walk the talk in everything they do," Colonel Gandy said. "Like shutting off the lights when they leave a room, and setting up protocols where the monitors go into a dormant mode after a certain amount of time. Those sorts of things all save small chunks in the micro but in the macro, they save real dollars, real energy for our nation."