Energy and Water Treasure Hunt Program: Naval Station Newport

The U.S. Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), facilitated a Regional Energy and Water Treasure Hunt (TH) training at Naval Station Newport to identify cost-effective ways to reduce water/energy consumption, decarbonization opportunities, and increase electrification efforts.

A group of people including servicemen and civilians are standing outside in front of a building smiling for the camera.

FEMP Regional Energy and Water Treasure Hunt at the Naval Air Station in Newport, Rhode Island.

Photos by Kendall Kam, FEMP

Project at a Glance

Location	Newport, Rhode Island
Agency	Department of the Navy
Project/Event Champions	Lieutenant Kyle Costa, Assistant Public Works Officer Ian White, Resource Efficiency Manager
Project/Event Completion	7/2023
Project Goals	Train staff on how to find low- to no-cost, easily attainable energy and water conservation measures (ECMs). Focus on decarbonization opportunities.
Project Benefits	Attendees identified more than $144K in annual energy savings measures and presented recommendations to site leadership. 98.7% of potential ECMs had a simple payback of less than 1 year. Identified ways to reduce carbon dependency and reduce overall CO₂ emissions by 288 tons annually. Established a culture of energy saving while training in-house staff to continue treasure hunt across the installation.
FEMP Assistance	Event was facilitated by FEMP personnel and contractors and hosted by NAVSTA Newport, Public Works Department. Trained site personnel on how to find quick wins with the assistance of the MEASUR tool, while focusing on training-the-trainer capabilities. Provided training guides and job aids with helpful hints and tips.

Goals, Drivers, Strategies, and Lessons Learned

Several energy policies, laws, and executive orders drive the need to reduce energy consumption, water usage, and carbon pollution in federal facilities. These policies include the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Energy Act of 2020, Executive Order 14057, and The Clean Air Initiative and Federal Building Performance Standards.

A key principle of a Regional Energy and Water TH is to train existing site staff, located within a geographical region, to identify and quantify easily attainable energy conservation measures (ECMs), and decarbonization opportunities.

The two-day train-the-trainer event, provided energy related training in the areas of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), plug load, lighting, compressed air, water, thermography, building envelope, and building automation systems related to FEMP's operations and maintenance best practices.

One man is captured pointing at an electrical box on the wall of a utility room. The hand of another man off-screen is also pointing at the box.

In a utility room, two men are grouped around mechanical equipment. One of them points to a pipe and is talking while the other looks at the area of interest.

TH teams from NAVSTA Newport, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Rhode Island Public School System explored the NAVSTA Newport Officer Training Facility and the Base Dental Clinic to fill their treasure chests with energy and water savings.

Activities included:

Interviewing occupants to fully understand their mission requirements.
Gathering pertinent equipment data through an interactive facility walk-through, after classroom instruction.
Establishing a baseline of energy consumption by collecting temperature, humidity, lighting levels, occupancy levels, and decarbonization/electrification opportunities.
Teams developing an out brief for leadership sharing their identified recommendations.

A group of people sitting in a meeting room listening to a speaker who is off screen.

The teams then returned to the classroom to collectively determine the most effective ways to enhance resilience by using the Department of Energy's Manufacturing Energy Assessment Software for Utility Reduction (MEASUR) tool. MEASUR enables users to input an energy baseline and then enter a recommended ECM; the program calculates simple payback solutions based on user input—thus allowing users with no or minimal energy or facilities experience to decrease carbon dependency.

More than $144K worth of annual energy savings measures were identified within a short two-day training program.

Engagement Benefits

Within the two-day event, TH participants were able to recommend to leadership more than $144K worth of annual energy savings measures and identify a pathway to decarbonization to meet federal agencies' carbon reduction goals and guidance. Payback for 98.7% of the identified ECM savings reflected a payback of less than 1 year. In addition, the collective efforts of the TH participants identified an opportunity to reduce carbon dependency by 288 tons of CO₂ annually.

FEMP Best Practices, Tools, and Resources Used in the Training

How to find, locate, and identify areas of possible improvement in agency facilities.
MEASUR software tool for calculating energy savings and simple payback for a variety of ECMs.
Reusable job aids designed to be utilized as they "hunt" for ECMs.
How to use equipment such as light meters, thermal imaging camera, water flow gauges, and more.

Attendee Feedback

"The FEMP Team was extremely knowledgeable and engaging during the two-day course. You could tell that this is an extremely experienced and talented team. I will reap the benefits of this training for years to come in my command's facilities! This training provided not only the tools to assist in finding quick wins, but the support is there by FEMP to assist in larger and more time-consuming energy projects. I look forward to seeing what is in the realm of possibilities for the future of my facilities!"

— Dan Podesta, Facilities Manager, Officer Training Command Newport

"The training provided at the Naval Station Newport was immense. All of you were extremely knowledgeable on all subjects, and attending your class was an absolute pleasure! WOW!"

— David P. Hallal, Director of Facilities, Newport Public Schools

"Thank you for all the support you've provided to the installation, the Department of Defense, and agency partners. Your team showed incredible dedication in coordinating this event, providing high-quality instruction to our personnel, and follow-on consultation to support our energy management program. The train-the-trainer approach will provide value for years to come."

— Lieutenant Kyle Costa, Assistant Public Works Officer, Public Works Department Newport

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