Energy Efficiency
Building and facility owners around the country are focusing on energy use. Some want to save money, some want to minimize their environmental impact, and some are responding to federal mandates. Either way, it’s often difficult to know where to start when looking to improve energy efficiency.
Tetra Tech has been helping clients optimize energy performance, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and save money for more than 40 years.
Our services include:
- Comprehensive energy auditing
- Commissioning, retrocommissioning, and recommissioning
- Building optimization management
- Resource Efficiency Management (REM)
- LEED and Energy Star program support
- Energy project development, management, and implementation
- Energy financing support
- Climate change consulting
- Measurement, verification, and monetization of environmental attributes (CO2, SOx, NOx, and renewable energy credits)
- Process optimization
- Renewable energy evaluations and project development
- Water conservation
- Recycling
- Technology evaluations
- Advanced metering
The first step for a client is usually the audit. This can be anything from a preliminary walk-through of a facility with a checklist—identifying lighting, Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system, and window upgrades, for example—to an investment-grade audit, where we provide a payback analysis that shows how installing completely new energy systems will pay off over three to five years.
Another option is to incorporate renewable energy elements, such as solar panels for heating water, for example.
Tetra Tech has the expertise to look at all these options for whatever level of adjustment a client is looking to make in the name of energy efficiency.
Tetra Tech also provides commissioning, recommissioning, and retrocommissioning services. In this process, an engineer can ensure that a building’s energy systems are running as designed, or at peak efficiency.
With some federal government facilities, especially in the Department of Defense, the original energy systems have not been touched since the facility was built 50 years ago or more. Tetra Tech’s engineers can make adjustments to the systems that have fallen out of balance to get them back to their original, peak level of operation.
Recommissioning and retrocommissioning are effective initial steps in achieving energy efficiency, especially for federal clients who are facing federal mandates to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Tetra Tech also provides a suite of services related to sustainable design. View our Green Buildings article here.
Additionally, our resource efficiency managers have more than a decade of experience developing and managing energy projects for federal facilities. Tetra Tech can help clients develop the right projects for their facilities, help find the funding to get them done, and provide the services needed.
More than 35 national awards and additional recognition are directly linked to Tetra Tech energy projects, highlighted below:
Federal Energy Management Portfolio
| Capabilities |
Results |
Recognition |
| Proven ability to develop, implement, and manage some of the best and most widely recognized energy programs in the Federal government |
Annual cost savings of $20 million or more |
8 Presidential Awards for Leadership in Federal Energy Management |
| Specialize in performance-based, on-site energy management services |
Continually provide more than 200% return on investment of contract costs |
18 Federal Energy Management Program Energy and Water Awards |
| Managing more than $700 million in annual utility budgets |
Secured more than $25 million in grants and rebates |
5 EPA Champions of Green Government |
| Supporting energy management programs at more than 60 federal facilities world-wide |
Cumulative savings:
- 1.5 Million MWH
- 1M Tons of CO2
- 200 million gallons of water
|
14 Secretary of the Navy Energy Awards |
| Comprehensive energy management services that provide clear value to our customers |
Identified and developed more than $80 million in projects |
Numerous other energy, recycling and resource conservation awards |
Whether clients are looking to save money, reduce their impact on the environment, or make their facilities more productive and comfortable for occupants—or all three!—Tetra Tech has the tools and expertise to make it happen. With a vested interest in the services we provide as well as the results achieved, Tetra Tech aims to cultivate change to embrace energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy achievements worldwide.
Project Examples
Tetra Tech in Japan: Misawa Air Base (AB) | Tetra Tech conducted a renewable energy study for possible heating alternatives in the Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) at Misawa AB, Japan. Tetra Tech evaluated waste-to-energy, geothermal, wind, photovoltaic and ground source heat pump options, and produced a 100% design for recommended modifications to the HAS systems and a 35% design for the selected alternative Vertical Ground-Coupled Heat Exchanger Systems (VGCHES). These projects are now being implemented at Misawa AB.
For the U.S. Navy Region Southwest | Tetra Tech provides energy support to 10 installations, helping the Navy meet its energy reduction goals
“In my opinion, the Regional money spent on the REM program has been some of the best money ever spent by the Navy! The program has paid for itself many times over, and with the quality people we have as REMs, I'm sure will continue to do so for a long time to come!” –CAPT Jack Surash, former Assistant Chief of Staff, Facilities, Navy Region Southwest
For Marine Corps Base Hawaii | Tetra Tech manages energy efficiency programs and new technology trials, with savings of 12,325 MBTUs, $900K in annual savings and rebates, and $1M a year in programmed projects. Some of the technologies and services have included wave-to-energy projects, commissioning and retro-commissioning, advanced metering, fuel cells, photovoltaic streetlights, solar hot water heating, design reviews, and financed project support.
