Tinker Air Force Base takes off toward energy efficiency with $243M contract
A new energy efficiency project at Tinker Air Force Base is expected to save more than $626 million in energy and operational costs at the Air Logistics Complex.
Honeywell Building Solutions on Monday announced the $243 million facility modernization project, which is expected to reduce energy consumption by 23 percent and save the base $20.5 million a year in energy and operational costs.
“Beyond saving energy and lowering operating costs, this is an opportunity to modernize Tinker Air Force Base’s industrial operations,” Honeywell President John Rajchert said in a statement. “Honeywell is pleased to partner with the Air Force in this endeavor and help them achieve operational excellence through software, energy and industrial process upgrades.
“This project is not only a big win for Honeywell, but also for the U.S. government, military and taxpayers as we drive sustainability in our country by improving the infrastructure to boost operational and energy efficiency.”
The project is the largest energy savings performance contract the Air Force has awarded. It is a joint effort among Tinker, Honeywell, the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Headquarters Air Force Material Command and the Air Force Civil Engineering Center.
“We are honored to be home to the largest energy retrofit project in Air Force history,” Brig. Gen. Mark K. Johnson, OC-ALC commander, said in a statement.
“This is a big milestone for Tinker Air Force Base and the Air Force in our journey to achieving operational efficiency, and we thank both the Secretary of the Air Force Leadership and Honeywell for making this achievement possible.
“In addition to increasing productivity, the improvements will also make us more competitive in the private sector for aircraft maintenance work through decreasing our energy costs.”
The project is designed to
make Tinker buildings more energy and operationally efficient by upgrading infrastructure and industrial processes.
The effort will include modernizing manufacturing lines to eliminate wasted ventilation and increase worker safety, updating wastewater treatment systems to provide equipment control and alarm monitoring, installing two new 2,000-ton chillers to increase the reliability of the cooling system, upgrading paint booths to reduce energy used by the painting process, decentralizing the steam heating plant with a distributed heat system to lower energy use, installing more efficient LED lighting with wireless controls and installing smart meters to more closely monitor and track building energy consumption, Honeywell said.
Through previous projects, Honeywell and Tinker have cut the base’s overall energy use by 37 percent, saving about $12 million in annual energy and operating costs.
An $80.6 million upgrade begun in 2012 replaced four centralized boilers with smaller, more efficient systems as part of an effort to save the base $170 million over 20 years while also cutting water use and carbon dioxide emissions.