The BOP and Performance Contracting

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has made extensive use of performance contracting for several years and it has enabled them to accomplish many of the sustainable projects they have initiated in recent years. Several of these projects will be discussed in our upcoming webinar on Nov 9 at 10:30 AM. Be sure to join us. You can register at www.greenprisons.org and it's free!!!

Energy Savings Performance Contracts in the

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Hilary L. Martinson, Senior Acquisitions Officer, Procurement Executive’s Office, Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has discovered that Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs)can be a winning solution―both environmentally and financially―for Federal agencies and the energy service companies, or ESCOs, with which they partner. But what exactly is an ESPC?

An ESPC is a unique type of government contract that was authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and is now authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, 42 U.S.C.§ 8287. Relevant regulations include the Department of Energy (DOE)’s implementing regulation on ESPCs, 10 C.F.R. part 436.34, and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).[1]An ESPC enables a Federal agency to reduce its energy consumption in a particular facility by installing energy conservation measures (ECMs).[2]An ESPC, or the updated and streamlined “Super ESPC,” begins with the DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) office competitively awarding indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID-IQ) prime contracts to several energy service companies. Federal agencies subsequently create their own ESPC projects by issuing delivery orders under the prime ESPC. The ESCO is then “paid” by receiving firm-fixed payments over time that are less than the agency’s yearly guaranteed cost savings. Unlike other government contracts, the project costs are paid by the savings achieved over the course of the contract. Moreover, if savings guaranteed by the ESCO do not materialize, the ESCO reimburses the government for the shortage.
How is the BOP implementing ESPCs?

In the BOP, the use of ESPCs has been steadily implemented since a solar thermal system was installed at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Phoenix, Arizona, in 1998 through an ESPC.[3]This renewable energy system satisfies 70 % of the hot water requirements at the facility, producing up to 50,000 gallons of hot water each day for kitchen, shower, and laundry use.

The Federal Corrections Complex (FCC) Victorville, California, won DOE’s 2006 Federal Energy and Water Management Silver Award for its efficient use of energy, which includes the use of a 750 kilowatt wind turbine, which produces 30 percent of peak electrical demand for one of its institutions, and the use of 300 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. FCC Victorville also received several upgrades to its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

In an effort to improve energy and water conservation, FCC Petersburg, Virginia, implemented an ESPC with the ESCO’s initial investment totaling $10 million. The 12 ECMs include a biomass boiler system, dry heat receiver, six electric vehicles for perimeter use, an air cooled chiller, ozone laundry (i.e., a cold water wash system that reduces washing and drying times and chemical usage), a steam system and control upgrades, ground source heat pumps, and a solar PV system. On an annual basis, the ESPC is expected to save FCC Petersburg 34 billion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy and 70 million gallons of water.

A recently implemented ESPC at FCC Lompoc, California, will significantly reduce Operations and Maintenance tasks during the contract’s 13-year period of performance and contains 11 different ECMs, including lighting and boiler improvements, renewable energy systems, refrigeration, and improvements to the HVAC and water and sewer systems.The changes are expected to result in an annual reduction of 47,374 (btu x 10ᶺ6).

At BOP’s FCC Beaumont, Texas, an ESPC awarded in 2009 will annually reduce 65,928 of energy (btu x 10ᶺ6). The initial project investment by the ESCO includes several ECMs, such asboiler and chiller improvements, building automation systems, lighting and HVAC improvements, renewable energy systems, electric motors and drives, energy surveys, and water and sewer systems improvements.

Other BOP facilities are utilizing ESPCs to achieve greater energy efficiency. A list of ID-IQ ESPC-awarded delivery orders and task orders from FY 1998 – FY 2011 may be found at DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website: www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/do_awardedcontracts.pdf.

Conclusion:

An ESPC is a vehicle that enables Federal agencies to pay for the costs of energy savings projects over the course of the contract performance period from the guaranteed realized savings. Agencies can upgrade and improve facilities and meet their energy conservation goals without expending large amounts of capital for equipment, materials, and labor. BOP has implemented approximately 22 such contracts to date.

[1]See FAR section 23.205,Energy-savings performance contracts, and subpart 17.1,Multiyear contracting.

[2] General information on ESPCs was obtained from the Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) website, www.eere.energy.gov.

[3]See Greening Federal Prisons: Meeting Future Demands, Corrections Today, June 2009 and Heating Water with Solar Energy Costs Less at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution, www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/33211.pdf (visited on April 13, 2011).

Academia Where Are You??

As a correctional practitioner for some 40 years I have had the opportunity to watch the profession evolve in a number of ways, most of them positive. The advent of accreditation, objective classification systems, unit management, etc., are all excellent examples of how the corrections profession has responded to new challenges.

In every instance these changes have been studied, dissected, and tested through academic study by institutions of higher learning. the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and some foundations have provided incentives to colleges and universities to study, evaluate and report on each of these then emerging trends.

So where is the support for sustainability? I beleive the evolution of sustainable and "green" practices is the next major step in the corrections profession. It does all the things we say are important; it saves money, has the potential to train inmates; and improves the enviornment thus the institution's relationship with the community, yet so far research on this emerging phenomenon has been limited.

With the exception of a couple of programs, Evergreen College in Washington state and the University of Arizona come to mind, the academic community has been silent. It is time, whether supported by the alphabet soup agencies in Washington or not, for academic institutions to begin to introduce the topic of sustainability into their curriculua.

It's obvious that corrections will continue to compete for fewer and fewer dollars as goverments work to overcome deficits. Those systems that have embraced sustainability have discovered that they can not only save money but in some instances create new funding streams (see the interview of Commissioner Bruce Lemmon of Indiana and our latest webinar that includes a presentation by the National Correctional Industries Associations' Wil Heslop).

Academic programs can no longer focus exclusively on the social sciences to develop tomorrow's correctional managers but should also be including the physical sciences, business and similar courses to provide a well rounded education.

At GreenPrisons.org we invite academic programs to join us in sharing what they are doing to better prepare tommorow's correctional leaders. If your university or criminal justice program has begun to include courses on sustainability or has partnered with a correctional agency to study their efforts, let us know. Academia has a significant role to play in promoting good sustainable practices in correctional management.

Academia where are you???

Monday Blog - Guest Bloggers

This week's blog is a guest entry from Paul Sheldon, Gene Atherton and Burt Klein

Save $1,000 per Inmate: 7 Easy First Steps to Greening Corrections

By Paul Sheldon, Eugene Atherton, and Burt Klein

When correctional professionals hear that it is possible to save $1,000 per inmate by "greening" correctional facilities, the most important question is, "What can we do to get started?" What follows here are straightforward ideas – "low-lying fruit" – that can be implemented immediately to save money and conserve resources. We first presented these ideas during a workshop at the 2010 ACA summer conference.
By using resources more efficiently, correctional institutions can free up funding, staff time, and facility space for other security-oriented activities. In a sample facility with 1,200 beds, if utility prices rise by as little as 5% per year over the next 20 years, the cost to the institution could be as high as $1,200,000 or more, which is $1,000 per inmate.
Reducing energy/water use and waste disposal by just 5% will prevent this cost increase. Rather than having to spend $1,000 per inmate, the facility will SAVE $1,000 per inmate, allowing the institution to maintain staffing and meet other security needs.
If the annual increase in combined energy, water, and waste disposal bills were 10%, the cost over 20 years could be over $7,200,000. Reducing energy/water and waste disposal by 10% would similarly save up to $7,200,000, once again making these funds available for staffing and security.
Doing maintenance first, maximizing efficiency, using inmate labor, providing job training, and using third party funding sources all enhance the value of these cost-saving measures.
The 7 easy steps to saving money are:1) More efficient lighting2) More efficient HVAC3) More efficient plug-in appliances4) More efficient motors & pumps5) More efficient water use6) Materials (moving towards zero waste)7) Independent and secure energy

LightingInstitutions as diverse as the Boulder, Colorado, County Jail1 and El Dorado State Correctional Facility in Kansas2 have invested in lighting upgrades, including skylights and other forms of daylighting, replacing T-12 fluorescent fixtures with T-8s, replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, and providing LED task lights. Kansas invested $2,123,556 in various energy-saving measures, including lighting, and is saving $247,517 per year. This translates to a utility cost reduction of 16%, simple payback of 8.2 years, and a 10-year return on investment of more than 12%.

HVACIn addition to lighting upgrades, many facilities, such as Norfolk, Virginia, Correctional Complex have tuned up or replaced their HVAC systems in order to save money and time. Norfolk installed a complex-wide energy management and control system, replaced two 1,500-horsepower steam plants, installed steam trap upgrades, and expects to reduce costs by more than the upgrades cost.3

Plug-in appliancesSimple upgrading to ENERGY STAR appliances can save up to 25% or more of the energy used for refrigerators, freezers, office equipment, washing machines, dryers, water coolers, etc.4 Just turning off appliances such as vending machines when not in use can save 30-50% of the electricity. Requiring inmate televisions to be certified as ENERGY STAR efficient could save 30-50% of the electricity used for televisions. And requiring prison industry shops to use efficient appliances and machinery could save similar amounts on utility bills.

Motors & pumpsMotors and pumps use large amounts of electricity. Installing variable speed motors, such as was done by Norfolk Correctional Complex,5 reduces electricity used by motors by 15-35%. Some companies, such as Emerson Motors,6 offer corrections-specific audits, recommendations, and services to help reduce energy use by pumps and motors.

WaterSaving water means saving money. Installation of water-efficient toilets, urinals, shower heads, rain barrels, and green roofs can further reduce water bills. Efficient garden projects, like the Women’s Garden Project at Evergreen Corrections Center in British Columbia, Canada, can beautify surroundings and reduce stress, while conserving water through use of rain barrels and swales.7

Materials (moving towards zero waste)Procedures such as recycling, composting, gardening, and life-cycle-cost-analysis can reduce the cost of procurement and waste disposal. Nearly every state boasts facilities that compost, grow vegetables and livestock, recycle, and evaluate the full life-cycle costs of operating equipment as well as purchase price, saving money in the process. Mississippi Prison’s Agricultural Enterprise generates $3,025,655 in revenues to offset the $3,124,507 cost of food, and employs 374 inmates for 774,000 hours per year. The system grows 23 different varieties of vegetables, corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, fruit, 7,300 hogs, and 36,000 chickens for inmate consumption, livestock feed, and outside sale.8

Independent and secure energyThe most reliable way to save money on energy is to install local, renewable energy systems, such as wind turbines,9 solar panels,10,11 geothermal systems,12 and biomass-fired heat and power systems.13

ConclusionEnergy, water, and waste efficiency upgrades are so profitable that many third-party financiers,14,15 will provide the up-front cost for free, in exchange for an agreement to share the cost savings with the finance company. In July of 2010, the American Correctional Association adopted the first standard to recommend that accredited facilities implement cost-effective energy efficiency, water efficiency, recycling, and renewable energy. In addition to saving money, the seven steps listed above will help comply with this standard as well.
***
A version of this article originally appeared on http://www.correctionsone.com/ in August of 2010. An expanded version was published in the April/May issue of Corrections Today magazine.
About the authors
Paul Sheldon is the Senior Advisor forNatural Capitalism Solutions (www.NatCapSolutions.org), who has authored numerous articles and reports on sustainability-oriented topics, has served as a workshop leader on greening corrections for the American Correctional Association, the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents, and the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a member of the Clean and Green Committee of the American Correctional Association.
Gene Atherton is currently in his 33rd year of service in the criminal justice field. He is contracted to serve as the Institutions Program Manager for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center Center of Excellence of the National Institute of Justice. He served 27 years for the Colorado Department of Corrections. After promoting through the ranks, he became Director of Prisons for the Western Region in Colorado until retirement in 2004. For the last fifteen years Mr. Atherton has served as a technical assistance consultant and trainer for the National Institute of Corrections on a variety of topics related to corrections. He has served as an author of numerous ACA publications. He has provided evidence in Federal Court as an expert witness on a variety of correctional issues, including conditions of confinement, use of force, unlawful discrimination, and management of high risk offenders. He currently serves as a member of several committees for the American Correctional Association.
Burt Klein is the President of PortionPac Chemical Corporation (http://www.portionpaccorp.com/), a Chicago-based manufacturer of the “CorrectPac” line of ecologically responsible cleaning supplies. PortionPac was recently honored by Inc. Magazine as one of the top small companies in America.

Tell Us Your Sustainable Story

In the October newsletter that will come out this week there is a small piece asking for you to tell us about your sustainable experiences. To expand on that a little we have been frustrated that there is not, for want of a better term, a "roadmap to sustainability". A "how to" or "cookbook" approach to assist managers who want to take advantage of the financial and environmental advantages of sustainability.

We're working on this with the help of Paul Sheldon of National Capitalism Solutions who has written extensively on the topic and Dr. Rick Ruddell of the University of Regina in Canada, but we need your input too.

Tell us how you got started, what worked and what you wish had worked better. Hopefully by sharing your story we can help others avoid mistakes and enjoy success. Send me any thoughts on this you have and we will work through it together. Just email me at Tommy@GreenPrisons.org

I also want to extend my thanks to Burt Klein and Caryn Stetts of PortionPac who gave me quite an extensive tour of their facility. They not only sell green, they live it. Heat, light and water are all a part of the equation on their factory floor and in their product. They will be at a number of shows in the coming months so be sure to stop by and see them. Their commitment to corrections is real.

Finally a plug for our next webinar next Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 10:30 EST. This month the topic is Re-Entry and the role green collar jobs can play in a more sustainable institution. Guest faculty will include Wil Alsop of the National Correctional Industries Association and Tom Young of the Virginia Department of Corrections. This is a webinar you won't want to miss, and it's free.

Until next time...