Energy News Network
Summary
Homeowners eager to lower their power bills have a relatively short rooftop-to-basement-to-backyard checklist for guidance on maximizing potential savings.
But that proposition is trickier at the storied Quantico Marine Corps Base, 35 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. With hundreds of buildings sprawling across 86 square miles, military decision-makers needed outside advice to figure out how to button up their largest energy leaks.
Ultimately, they opted to save an estimated $1.6 million annually on utility payments by refurbishing systems connected to 35 buildings in three separate areas across the Virginia campus. The base, in Prince William and Stafford counties, is in Dominion Energy’s service territory.
Workers are now in the midst of replacing roughly 16,000 fixtures in a dozen buildings, across several parking lots and along streets with LED lights. In addition, they’re repairing inefficient heating and ventilating systems and upgrading other equipment. The contract doesn’t include any solar projects or other renewable energy.
Two of the buildings due for improvements include the Marine Corps Exchange, the equivalent of a department store, and the Russell Knox Building, headquarters for several military criminal investigative and counterintelligence agencies.
While some retrofits are more routine, much less mundane is the installation of an on-site microgrid that will allow 10 buildings to go into island mode during electrical outages. To do this, the base is installing 3.2 megawatts of on-site generation dual-fueled by both natural gas and liquid propane to provide redundancy in case power is cut off. Those 10 buildings, which primarily house offices, were selected because they lacked backup generation.
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