Environmental Control

Mr. Dominic Turner demonstrates the capabilities of the Energy Management Control System from the 94th Civil Engineer Squadron headquarters building, Feb. 17. This system allows central control of the environmental services throughout Dobbins base facilities from this laptop located in CE. This type of systems management, until recently, required large banks of computer controlled equipment to centrally manage these systems. Mr. Turner is with the Base Operations Support Services contractor, DMS. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Brad Fallin)

Environmental Control

The large meeting room in the newly remodeled Building 813 is brightly lit with fluorescent tubes and energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs, to provide an inviting location for large groups to meet. There are two podiums with touch screen controls to operate ceiling mounted projectors and screens. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Brad Fallin)

Environmental Control

This is the electronic control circuitry on a boiler located in the plant room for building 838. It is one of the many end-points in the Energy Management Control System that allows CE personnel to remotely monitor and control environmental systems around the base to ensure a more efficient use of energy. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Brad Fallin)

Environmental Control

Building 813, formerly a Dobbins ARB dining facility, has been refurbished for use as a presentation and meeting place where large groups of people can gather and accomplish the business at hand. The main room has been lit with fluorescent tubes and energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs to provide an inviting location for groups to meet. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Brad Fallin)

Dobbins leader in energy management

Published Feb. 24, 2011
By Capt. Patrick Simmons

DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Ga. -- Dobbins Air Reserve Base is currently implementing a new energy management and control system base-wide, which once completed will allow Dobbins Civil Engineering management to better manage energy consumption on base.

The $1.25 million EMCS contract was awarded Nov. 22 to Geo-Marine Inc., a subsidiary of Applied Research Associates Inc., according to Dewayne Ivory, the Dobbins civil engineer technician responsible for managing the contract.

Once implemented, the EMCS will better monitor and centrally control power, lights, and heating and air conditioning on base to ensure that energy efficiency requirements of the base commander are being met. The system will still allow building tenants to locally control lights and climate control, but will ensure that such settings are within reasonable parameters and energy is conserved during off-duty hours.

The contract is a "design-build" contract award, which means that GMI is responsible for both designing and building the system under the specifications identified by base engineering management. The design phase, currently 35 percent complete, will affect just about every building on base. During the design phase, GMI and base engineers are inspecting every building on base to ensure that existing infrastructure, including phase-power and heating and air-conditioning units, are compatible with the new energy management system. Once design has been approved by base engineering, construction of the system is expected to be completed within nine months.

Future building projects will also incorporate energy efficiency into design of new construction and building renovations. Such initiatives may include installing more energy-efficient lighting or upgrading insulation in the event of roof renovation. They would also include installing new electronic thermostats and light switches that operate on central timers, but would allow for local over-ride in the event users are working off-duty hours.

In addition to implementing the EMCS contract, GMI will begin performing energy audits on base in the next year. These audits are the first step to identifying how energy costs can be reduced, which will result in recommendations to conserve additional energy. Any recommendation will require resulting energy savings to pay back project cost within an average of 12 years, according to Hugh Phillips, mechanical engineer and Dobbins base energy manager.

The 2015 goal of Dobbins is to reduce energy consumption on base by 30 percent from 2003 rates.