The U.S. Department of Energy's In-House Energy Management Program:
Meeting the Challenges of Federal Energy Management

Steve Greenberg, Evan Mills, Doug Lockhart, and Dale Sartor
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

William Lintner
U.S. Department of Energy Headquarters

Published in Energy Engineering, 1995

This publication can be downloaded from this link and read using Adobe Acrobat.

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, get it here:

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is the largest government energy consumer in the civilian (non-military) sector. DOE's In-house Energy Management (IHEM) Program was established in 1975 to implement energy-efficiency improvements at DOE sites across the United States. These diverse sites include power marketing administrations, national laboratories, weapons production facilities, and nuclear reactor facilities, comprising over 14,000 buildings and 120 million square feet of floor area. Energy expenditures at the 62 eligible sites were about $303 million in 1994, 64% of which was for buildings. The IHEM program was funded at $27 million/year in 1995, but is slated by Congress for zero funding in 1996. IHEM buildings-related programs include studies, retrofits, new construction, metering, and energy savings performance contracting. Between 1977 and 1994, $47 million was invested in studies and $290 million in 1100 retrofit projects, with an average payback time of 3 years. This corresponds to an annual savings level of $100 million and a return on investment in excess of 25%. DOE has cost-effectively reduced its energy consumption in buildings by 43% since 1975, surpassing the fiscal year 2000 requirement of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. This article discusses the difficulties in implementing energy management programs in Federal facilities, and how DOE/IHEM is addressing these challenges. This article reviews IHEM's efforts to date, applications-oriented collaborations with DOE R&D programs, institutional and financing issues, and offers some thoughts on future directions.
E. Mills Publications List | EETD | LBNL | Comments & Feedback