Source: United States Navy
The project will increase the installation’s capacity to provide reliable energy to continue its instrumental role in conducting strategic deterrence missions.
“This investment is a huge win for NSB Kings Bay,” said NAVFAC Southeast Energy Program Manager Ryan Howard. “The resource savings resulting from reduced maintenance costs and fewer electrical outages can be applied to other infrastructure needs across the installation.”
The project is funded by the Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program (ERCIP). ERCIP is a subset of the Defense-Wide Military Construction (MILCON) Program specifically intended to fund projects that improve energy resilience, contribute to mission assurance, save energy, and reduce DOD’s energy costs. ERCIP accomplishes this through construction of new, high-efficiency energy systems and technologies or through modernizing existing energy systems.
The project provides for the replacement of 13 oil-filled circuit breakers on the 230kV electrical transmission loop with new breakers including integrated current transformers for relaying and metering.
The existing oil-filled circuit breakers have been in service since the mid-1980’s and are being replaced across the utility industry. Sustaining the current breakers is increasingly more expensive as parts are obsolete and difficult to locate. This is the first in a series of ERCIP projects that will improve electrical transmission and distributions systems at NSB Kings Bay.
All new equipment systems will be connected to the existing supervisory control and data acquisition network to allow for remote monitoring, operation and advanced troubleshooting during unscheduled outages.
Work will be performed in St. Marys, Georgia and is expected to be completed by Jan. 2025.
Small businesses play a vital role in the American economy – employing half of our country’s workforce, creating nearly two out of every three new American jobs, and often being the source of the next great American innovation. NAVFAC Southeast strives to meet its goals and build on its successes by providing contract opportunities to these businesses.
“NAVFAC Southeast invests in small businesses to support our national defense,” said John Bazylewicz, NAVFAC Southeast assistant deputy director for Small Business. “Small businesses fuel the American dream, which grows the local and federal economies that ultimately strengthen the warfighter.”
Bazylewicz explained that small businesses provide construction, professional and supported services expertise that support the Navy’s mission and the men and women in uniform. It is through strong policy and sound business processes that NAVFAC is able to develop capabilities based strategies that consider program risks, cost, schedule and technical requirements that help meet the expectations of supported commanders while supporting public policy objectives.
Each year NAVFAC establishes target goals for Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone Small Business (HUBZONE), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), and Women-Owned Small Business categories. Utilizing these small business concerns to the maximum extent practicable is a matter of National interest with both social and economic benefits.