28 CES puts hammer down on energy use

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Abigail Klein
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  During the past several months, Ellsworth joined a handful of other bases implementing the use of digital "smart meters."

At Ellsworth, 67 buildings received the meters in an effort to more efficiently track, maintain and reduce energy use base-wide.

Before the 28th Civil Engineer Squadron requested the installation of the meters in October 2008, Ellsworth had used traditional meters to combine all electrical and gas readings into a single measurement for the entire base.

"This limited 28 CES capability to determine gas and electrical costs for individual facilities, particularly industrial buildings, making it difficult to identify whether or not buildings were using proper conservation practices," said Dell Petersen, 28 CES base energy manager.

The new meters eliminate this problem by instantly communicating readings to Montana-Dakota Utility Co., the organization responsible for Ellsworth's energy and the physical installation of the meters. They then record the meter readings to determine energy costs for each month. The first reading for individual facilities at Ellsworth was recorded in December 2008.

The ability to record costs for each facility has helped increased energy reduction concerns not only within 28 CES, but all of Ellsworth.

Energy awareness throughout all units was stressed during the December 2008 Secretary of the Air Force dictated Environmental Safety Briefing. The briefing emphasized everyone in the AF's responsibility for reducing energy consumption in order to achieve the ACC goal to reduce energy consumption at each base 20 percent by 2020, Mr. Petersen said.

Along with allocating costs to individual Ellsworth facilities and expanding energy reduction responsibilities, the new meters have helped place more focus on repairs to facilities which may have caused their high energy costs.

We identified buildings with more than $300 in electrical costs and more than $1000 in heating costs just during the last week of December 2008 due to leaky water pipes and holes in roofs, which decrease heat insulation, said Lisa Teeslink, 28 CES Resource Efficiency manager.

The dollars we save in heating and water by repairing these damages can be converted into necessary repairs for other buildings, as well as new technology to continue to lessen our energy use at Ellsworth, Mr. Petersen said.

"This new technology has really opened people's eyes," Ms. Teeslink said. "The ability to view the cost of each building's energy use on paper makes energy efficiency at Ellsworth everyone's concern."