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Energy Monitors Make Headway at NAS Jacksonville

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100909-15
9/9/2010

By Clark Pierce, Naval Air Station Jacksonville Public Affairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville is leading the charge to meet Department of Defense (DoD) energy and water conservation goals with their Building Energy Monitor (BEM) Program.

Air Crewman 1st Class Michael Blair is the director of NAS Jacksonville's Building Energy Monitor (BEM) Program. He holds a certificate in energy management practices from North Carolina State University. For the past two years, he's worked with Public Works Department Resource Efficiency Manager Cliff Plante to develop energy management activities that result in lower energy and operating costs.

"There are driving forces behind these energy initiatives," said Plante. "The DoD is mandated to cut electricity consumption 30 percent by 2015. Locally, Commander, Navy Region Southeast Rear Adm. Tim Alexander signed an instruction (CNRSE 4101.1) in August 2009 to bring the overall energy management plan down to the installation level." 



"An important first step in complying with the admiral's instruction was the formation of a building energy monitor program," said Blaire. "So far, more than 125 military and civilian personnel have completed BEM training at NAS Jacksonville. That translates to 96 percent of our base facilities that are now audited and monitored by a BEM."

Air Crewman 2nd Class Timothy Meads, BEM for Patrol Squadron (VP) 45 in hangar 1000 believes that serving as a BEM will become one of the Navy's most important collateral duties.

"Reducing our consumption of energy by 30 percent in the next five years will take more than just turning off the lights in unoccupied spaces," said Meads. "Our BEM program shows leadership in the execution of CNRSE Instruction 4101. I'm relatively new to the BEM Program, but our skipper intends that the VP-45 Pelicans will lead by example."

Meads and other BEMS in Hangar 1000 are working with Blair to set up the station's first compressed air system leak-detection program.

"NAVFAC Southeast is proactively integrating a robust compressed air leak-detection program that includes a monthly survey of the hangar's compressed air piping, hoses and manifolds," said Blair. "It's been determined that a one-sixteenth-inch diameter hole in a compressed air pipe costs about $860 annually in lost energy. Multiply that by 100 little leaks elsewhere in the system and you're talking big bucks."