JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
Joint Base San Antonio, CPS Energy's largest customer, will receive a five-figure check this month for its participation in a demand response program by the utility.
Col. William Eger, 802nd Mission Support Group commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Donaldo Puller, 802nd MSG superintendent, accepted an oversized check for $40,066 from CPS Energy officials Garrick Williams, JBSA energy solutions director, and Yvonne Haecker, JBSA account manager on behalf of JBSA during a presentation Monday at JBSA-Lackland.
The demand response program's objective is for the customer to reduce its power demand load during an event to earn the rebate. JBSA received 15 notifications between June and September to curtail load from CPS. On the day of each event, CPS notified JBSA energy officials at 1 p.m. to reduce energy usage from 3-6 p.m.
JBSA averaged 598 kilowatts of reduction for the 15 events after signing an agreement with CPS to reduce 600KW per event.
The rebate, $67 per average kilowatts reduced, will be applied to JBSA operations and maintenance. Along with the check, JBSA also generated $2,000 in energy savings by participating in the program.
"The partnership we enjoy with JBSA and their decision to participate in our Demand Response Program has both financial and conservation benefits for both parties," said Williams. "We are reducing peak demand during San Antonio's hottest months while JBSA realizes savings in energy cost and a reduction in overall energy consumption."
This is the first year all JBSA locations participated in the demand response program, said Ruben Ramos, JBSA-Randolph energy manager. JBSA-Randolph has been in the program for the past three years.
"This is a win-win situation for JBSA and CPS," Ramos said. "JBSA saves energy and gets paid for it."
Ramos said JBSA had some challenges implementing the demand response on each location.
"Each location has different systems, so they applied load curtailment in their own way," he said.
At JBSA-Lackland, limiting chiller demand and air handle unit fan speed reset functions were used on building 1530. The building load was also reduced by shutting down warehouse reset fans. All reduction techniques were done manually by JBSA personnel.
At JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, the chiller that provides cooling for buildings 2840 and 2841 was shut down. Johnson Controls, which has an energy savings performance contract with JBSA, implemented the action manually.
At JBSA-Randolph, its energy management control system used a software program to perform demand rolling on most of its buildings. The software program controls air handle units and variable frequency drives to limit power consumption. The software is set up to run automatically when a curtail notification is received from CPS.
JBSA just completed Energy Action Month in October, an annual national campaign to save natural resources with conservation measures through energy awareness. JBSA military members and civilians were also encouraged to take action in meeting energy goals in order to complete the every day mission.