Robins Air Force Base, GA |
Southland Energy
February
20, 2021 — Following a rigorous
development and design process, Southland Energy and their utility partner Georgia
Power, completed the
implementation phase of a Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC) for the Air Logistics
Complex (ALC) at Robins Air Force Base, GA.
Over a 30-month
period, Southland Energy and Georgia Power collaborated with the ALC to design
and construct a $26,737,788 UESC which consists of two major compressed air
plants and distribution systems, as well as the required electrical power
systems to achieve 48 percent energy reduction and 99.99 percent reliability
with 2N redundancy. These plants distribute compressed air to 40 surrounding
mission critical aviation maintenance and test and research facilities totaling
one million square feet.
The goal of the UESC was
to produce energy efficient compressed air plants that provide reliable, dry
air with 100 percent compressor redundancy to the facilities at the ALC.
Leveraging significant industrial and mission critical facility experience and
expertise, Southland Energy was able to determine the key measurements needed
in order to provide early and accurate costs and savings along with a lifecycle
energy and operations and maintenance analysis specific to the ALC.
“Construction within an active flight line and secure area was very challenging,” said Quinn Phillips, Project Manager, Southland Industries. “The requirement that all work was completed while the existing compressed air service remained 100 percent operational added significant complexity. The construction and ALC teams on site collaborated and prepared daily to ensure continuous availability of compressed air 24/7 to support aircraft readiness goals during the construction.”
In addition to the new compressed air plants, this project includes repair of significant leaks throughout the distribution system, heated blower purge desiccant air dryers, reconditioned 30,000-gallon receiver, new breathing air system, HVAC improvements, and new motor controls. A new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system will control the plant and is integrated with the new electrical sub-station distribution gear. The new SCADA system will be used for performance tracking and diagnostics and has been designed to complement an ongoing base-wide Utility Monitoring and Control Systems (UMCA) program.
“The implementation of the UESC provides
resilience, mission assurance, significant operational flexibility, and most
importantly eliminates costly outages of the system significantly impacting
daily production rates,” said Damon West of the ALC Energy office. “ALC now has
reliable compressed air to allow us to meet our mission requirements.”