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Winners of the 2012 ENERGY STAR® CHP Award
Public Recognition
Past Winners
- 1999 - 2011 Winners (PDF) (52 pp, 1.1MB, About PDF)
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command Twentynine Palms
Located in southern California, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command Twentynine Palms (MCAGCC) encompasses more than 998 square miles of high desert. MCAGCC's two-fold mission is to provide live fire arms training prior to overseas deployment, and to provide facilities, services, and support to up to 25,000 civilian staff, military personnel, and their families.
Maintaining successful base operations means ensuring the availability of secure and reliable electricity and thermal energy – a task that is met with the base's highly efficient MCAGCC cogeneration plant. A Solar Turbines combustion turbine generator produces up to 7.5 MW of electricity and, utilizing otherwise-wasted heat from the turbine exhaust, produces hot water that is used to heat and provide domestic hot water to several hundred buildings. Using an absorption chiller, hot water from the CHP system is also used to produce chilled water for building air conditioning.
With an efficiency of over 64 percent, the plant uses 24 percent less fuel than a conventional energy-supply system. Based on this comparison, the CHP system avoids an estimated 19,700 metric tons per year of CO2 emissions, equal to that from the electricity used by more than 2,400 homes. The base reports annual energy costs are reduced by $5.8 million.
Because the base is at the end of an electricity transmission and distribution system that can be interrupted by summer lightning strikes, maintaining a reliable electricity supply is critically important to achieving the base's mission. The CHP system has "black start" capability through a diesel generator linked to the plant. In the case of loss of power the plant can operate in "island mode" — independently from the grid — and supply power to a significant portion of the base. The base is developing a micro-grid which will enable power from the CHP system to be used to support critical base operations in the case of grid power outages.
Base energy managers are developing infrastructure that will enable it to supply electricity to the grid when required by the electric utility to meet peak demands.
The system was developed by Johnson Controls with assistance from Vanderweil Engineers. Johnson Controls is compensated based on system performance, and is responsible for system maintenance and training of the military personnel who operate the system.
Development of highly efficient energy supply systems like the MCAGCC cogeneration plant requires a team effort. And in this case, EPA is pleased to acknowledge the contribution of several collaborating CHPP partners: Johnson Controls, Solar Turbines, and Vanderweil Engineers. Through the implementation of an energy services performance contract, Johnson Controls guarantees a specified level of cost savings for the base while ensuring successful operation of the CHP system.
US Army Garrison, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
A Department of Defense priority is to improve the reliability of the electric power supply to its installations, recognizing the link between energy security and national security. The 82nd Airborne Division Combined Heat and Power Plant at the US Army Garrison, Fort Bragg in North Carolina plays a significant role in achieving this objective.
The CHP system, commissioned in 2004, consumes 18 percent less fuel than a conventional energy supply system producing the same amount of electricity and useful thermal energy. Based on this comparison, the CHP system avoids an estimated 12,300 metric tons per year of CO2 emissions, equal to that from the electricity used by more than 1,500 homes. The system is also reducing the base's energy costs by an estimated $1 million annually.
The system is powered by a combustion turbine-generator which produces up to 5 MW of electricity. Otherwise-wasted heat from the turbine exhaust is recovered and used to produce nearly 27,000 pounds of steam per hour – steam that is used to meet the space heating and domestic hot water needs of more than 10,000 soldiers, their families, and civilian base employees in 67 buildings across the base. Using an absorption chiller, the turbine exhaust also provides chilled water used for building air conditioning.
As part of a plan to improve the energy security of the base, the system output can be used to support continued critical base operations in the event of disruptions in the local electricity supply.
Development of highly-efficient energy supply systems like the 82nd Airborne Division Combined Heat and Power Plant typically requires the concerted efforts of a team. And in this case, EPA is pleased to acknowledge the contribution of several collaborating CHPP partners: the Department of Energy, Broad U.S.A., Honeywell, the North Carolina Solar Center, Solar Turbines, and Vanderweil Engineers. Through the implementation of an energy services performance contract, Honeywell guarantees a specified level of cost savings for the base while ensuring successful operation of the CHP system.