Gitmo Undergoes Energy Audit

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Twelve members of an engineering firm completed a three-week energy audit and building assessment of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay facilities, Jan. 26.

The company, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala. has approximately 115 employees worldwide and is an exclusive subcontractor of CH2M Hill. CH2M Hill has a contract with the Department of Navy to do energy audits and building assessments on its installations worldwide.

"One of our main business lines is resource efficiency managers," said Bob Starling, Director of Army Programs for SAIN Engineering. "A resource manager is a contractor who sits permanently on a military base assisting in developing en¬ergy savings and meeting energy mandates and goals."

In 2011, SAIN audited more than 2 billion square feet of Navy facilities, according to Starling.

The SAIN team in GTMO was comprised of mechanical and electrical engineers, experts in lighting, renewable energy and building envelope. Building envelope involves items such as the roof installation, windows, and doors.

"The development of electricity and water at GTMO costs the government $100,000 per day, so anything we can do to help reduce those costs is very beneficial," said Starling.

When the team surveys facilities at an installation, they look for low cost ways to conserve energy. They put these savings into categories of no costs, medium costs and major projects.

"Some things are low cost, no cost," said Starling. "Turning off lights, for instance is low cost, no cost, which is easy to do, but hard to get everyone to accomplish sometimes."

While surveying the Naval Station's headquarters, the survey team found a no cost way to save energy in the building.

"We found a leak in the pneumatic air compressor in the boiling room," said Starling. "That air compressor controls the thermostats on the walls. It takes a wrench and about three seconds to tighten that fitting and make this work accurately."

The medium costs projects are things that the base could afford to do from available funds, and major projects requires programmed funding that an installation alone could not cover. The company will now prepare a report that will go to Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast and the Department of the Navy for review.

"We believe that there is a tremendous amount of energy dollars that can be saved for the Navy here at GTMO," said Starling. "By saving those dollars, the Navy should be able to invest that back into training and other areas that will improve quality of life for the people who live and work here."