New energy plan aims to conserve energy, money at Peterson Published June 15, 2007 By Corey Dahl 21st Space Wing Public Affairs PETERSON AFB, Colo. -- A new energy plan will be rolled out in the coming months to make sure Peterson meets its conservation goals - and maintains its utilities budget. The Energy Excellence Program, a four-pillar blueprint for energy reduction, is being developed to help the base comply with Executive Order 13423, signed by President Bush in January. According to the order, all installations, which were previously required to reduce energy consumption by 2 percent a year, must now reduce their use by 3 percent annually. To ensure compliance, the government will cut the equivalent funding for utilities, forcing installations to pay any extra expenses with their own money by fiscal year 2008. For Peterson, that could mean problems. According to Brie Ward, an electrical engineer with the 21st Civil Engineer Squadron, the base is already having a hard time meeting its current conservation requirements. With the government providing only 11 months worth of utilities funding in 2008 - a reduction of about 8.5 percent - the base will either have to start conserving more now - or face a roughly $74,000 payout from 21st Space Wing funds, Ms. Ward said. The 21st CES is developing the Energy Excellence Program for Peterson. "If we don't meet our goals, we can't pay for our utilities and then the wing will have to step in and cover that extra month," Ms. Ward said. "And then that's money they can't spend on cooler things, like radar at Thule or something." Ms. Ward said the base is hoping the Energy Excellence Program can prevent that. The plan aims to encourage conservation at every level on base, from considering energy efficiency when constructing or improving buildings to simply shutting the lights off when a room isn't in use. Two of the plan's pillars, investment and recommissioning, focus on creating and maintaining energy-efficient systems on base. Investment encourages base officials to look into long-term solutions such as retrofitting buildings or purchasing renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, down the road. Recommissioning creates a goal of regularly sending teams into buildings to make sure all systems are working properly. An audit of 70 percent of the base's buildings earlier this year found energy-wasting glitches in every single one of them. "Buildings get out of whack really easily," she said. "All it takes is an office going on vacation, turning something off and then forgetting to flip it back on when they get back." The other pillars, advocacy and awareness, are aimed at educating base employees and promoting cultural change. Ms. Ward said the base will start holding Energy Day events more often and pass out brochures and literature about responsible energy use. Peterson will also start encouraging individual squadrons to develop their own conservation plans, she said. "In a lot of buildings, the lights stay on all the time," Ms. Ward said. "It can be as simple as designating that the last one to leave switches everything off." No matter how easy some of the changes may be, though, Ms. Ward said the Energy Excellence Program has a rough road ahead of it. "It's a cultural change, and that's going to be hard," she said. "It's basically telling people, 'Yes, energy's a problem. No, the government isn't made of money.' And that's something a lot of people don't get." Comment on this story.