Pepco Energy secures USD11m energy savings performance contract with the Virginia Department of Military Affairs

Arlington based Pepco Energy has secured a 15 year contract with the Virginia Department of Military Affairs to deliver energy efficient services to Virginia’s National Guard Armories.

These systems will save Virginia more than $15 million annually.

Pepco Energy Services reported on Thursday the receipt of a comprehensive USD11m energy savings performance project contract from the Virginia Department of Military Affairs.

Under the 15 year contract, Pepco Energy will install new direct digital controls, energy-efficient boilers, geothermal heating and cooling systems and water conservation measures for Army National Guard Armories throughout Virginia. In addition, Pepco Energy will provide infrastructure improvements for the facilities, many of which have roofs that are leaking. The project will impact 58 facilities, including 24 Army National Guard Armories. Over the contract term, the Virginia Department of Military Affairs will save more than USD15.8m, including maintenance savings. The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by about 720 metric tons and energy use by more than 15% each year. The company stated the construction commenced in November and is due to be complete in December 2012. Pepco Energy Services Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pepco Holdings Inc (NYSE:POM), provides competitive energy efficiency services, including renewable energy and combined heat and power.

Hampton Roads Buoyed by Revamped Strategy

Hampton Roads based military assets and personnel might be spared during a budget induced force restructuring as it appears more ground troops will be cut and boats and planes would be spared.

Officials in Hampton Roads, Va., believe the tilt in defense strategy outlined Thursday calling for the military to rebalance its global posture to emphasize the Asia-Pacific and Middle East theaters is good news for the region.

“They kept talking about global presence with fewer people, which translates to me as more airplanes and ships. You can’t have a global presence without carriers and ships,” Virginia Rep. Robert Scott (D) told the Daily Press.

Craig Quigley, executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, echoed Scott, noting that the region’s concentration of Navy and Air Force facilities places it in better shape than communities with large Army or Marine installations.

“I’d much rather be in Hampton Roads right now as opposed to Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Fort Campbell, where you have large standing forces that deploy forward,” Quigley said. “The Army and Marine Corps are going to get smaller.”

Still, because the vision the president and DOD’s senior leadership described was short on specifics, area officials said they could not carefully assess its impact on the military personnel, DOD civilian workers and contractors in southeastern Virginia, according to the story.

FAA Directed to Startup 6 New UAS Test Sites

The newly inked 2012 Defense Authorization Act suggests the FAA establish 6 unmanned aerial systems test sites. If the FAA were to comply with the Act, Virginia would be in the running for one of the 6 sites. Virginia installations that would be involved include Wallops Flight Facility and Langley Air Base.

The 2012 Defense Authorization Act calls for the Federal Aviation Administration to establish six new testing sites for unmanned aerial systems, according to Defense Systems.

The act allots at least $1 billion for UAS activities. The sites will be used to test the safety of integrating UAS into the national airspace as part of a five-year program established under the act.

UAS have been primarily used in overseas military operations overseas or in restricted U.S. airspace, Defense Systems reported.
The act requires the FAA and Defense Department to coordinate in determining how UAS could be used in U.S. airspace according to Defense Systems.

TheNewNewInternet recently reported that drones are being used for border control and being considered for use by law enforcement for crime investigation and monitoring utilities.

New 1,000-room Lee hotel still short on space

The highly disputed 1,000 bed hotel located on-post at Fort Lee will not be large enough to accommodate the high demand of overnight rooms to support the training mission of the post. The additional rooms will have to come from local hotels located off-post. Local business owners have not responded well to the required construction of the building. They fear the hotel will take away all of the business they might have gained from the BRAC related growth on the installation.

PETERSBURG, Va. — The Army's biggest lodging center is on schedule to be completed by June at Fort Lee.
The seven-story, $86.3 million military hotel will provide 1,000 rooms to visiting soldiers and military students who train at the sprawling Petersburg base.

Combined with existing lodging facilities, the new hotel will still fall short of providing enough rooms for visiting military personnel.
Mike Thurman of the Fort Lee Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation office said contractors are now putting finishing touches on the lodging center, such as laying carpet and installing lights. The first visitors are expected in the fall.

Some hotel and motel owners in the Petersburg area opposed the new lodging center, arguing it would harm their businesses.
The Army says visiting students will still require off-base lodging once it's completed.

Report: Panetta’s Budget Plan Coming Later This Week

Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey will brief the Pentagon press corps on the results of their defense strategy at 11:15 am on 1/5/2011. The briefing can be viewed real-time at http://www.pentagonchannel.mil. An interactive cuts worksheet detailing the potential defense cuts can be found at the following URL: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/02/us/you-cut-the-defense-budget.html?choices=22m04tg8

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta plans to announce his approach to the impending $450 billion defense budget cuts over the next decade later this week, according to a New York Times report.

The plan, to be presented at a news conference this week, would put forth proposals to reduce the Pentagon’s budget by $260 billion over the next five years. The Times reported that Panetta will propose a U.S. military “large enough to fight and win one major conflict” and also conduct a handful of other smaller operations.

Areas being considered for cuts include salaries, retirement and health benefits. The Times reports Panetta is also looking at the nuclear arsenal, combat aircraft and warships.

The Times story said Panetta acknowledges the Pentagon’s personnel costs are “unsustainable,” and he believes retirement benefits may have to be scaled back to save what are considered to be crucial weapons systems. The Pentagon will also look at replacing the strategic nuclear forces, according to the Times.

The cuts required by last summer’s debt ceiling deal make up for 8 percent of the Pentagon’s base budget, according to the Times.
Panetta’s proposal will be sent to Congress for consideration and debate before final decisions made. The Times reported that future presidents would be able to propose an alternative spending plan to Congress.

Busy year ahead for Tri-Cities projects, politics

Among the many events happening in in the Tri-Cities area, Fort Lee projects to include road and gate improvements, the completion of the 1,000 bed on-post hotel and a dedicated rail line from Fort Lee to Fort A.P. Hill make the top of the list.

As Yogi Berra once said, "Predictions are tough, especially about the future." But Tri-Cities residents won't need a crystal ball to look ahead confidently to quite a few major events year that are already in the pipeline or marked on the calendar for the coming year.
One of the biggest economic drivers in the region for the past several years, the expansion of Fort Lee under the Base Realignment and Closure process, officially wrapped up in 2011, but some related projects are due for completion this year.

- An $11.4 million project to improve access around the post's Sisisky Gate is scheduled to be finished in November. Funding was provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as the stimulus bill.

The project will add capacity and decrease congestion around the intersections of Temple Avenue, Oaklawn Boulevard/state Route 36 and the Sisisky Gate. A new ramp will let drivers make a double-left turn from Temple Avenue onto eastbound Oaklawn Boulevard, with a new signal planned.

A third lane is being added to eastbound Route 36 between Temple and Jefferson Park Road. A divided right turn lane onto Jefferson Park will also be added.

- Construction of an $86 million, 1,000-room Army Lodging facility is scheduled for completion in June. The military hotel will likely open gradually as final tasks such as furnishing the rooms continues over the following couple of months.

When first announced in the summer of 2009, the plan by the Army's Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation command to build the facility sparked concerns locally among hotel owners and other business people who worried that it would siphon off all the growth they had expected from BRAC. But Fort Lee officials said the facility is required under Army standards and is essential to the post's training mission.

- Also related to Fort Lee's expanded training mission, a new rail service is expected to start this month that will carry soldiers between the local post and Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County. The service will use three locomotives and 10 railcars obtained from Virginia Railway Express.

- Another important economic engine in the region, the Rolls-Royce PLC aircraft parts manufacturing center in Prince George County, wrapped up construction of its first phase in late 2010. But a related project just broke ground last year and is expected to be completed in August.

The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing is a joint effort among three Virginia universities - the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia State University - and a number of international manufacturing companies, including Rolls-Royce. The $12.9 million facility on the Rolls-Royce Crosspointe campus in New Bohemia will conduct training and research into manufacturing technology, with an emphasis on processes that can be put into production quickly and profitably.

- New Bohemia could also see the start of another huge project this year if state officials give the OK. Detailed proposals for a massive, long-contemplated project to build a replacement for U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk are due on Virginia highway officials' desks next month.

Estimates of the cost of the 55-mile toll road have varied considerably over the years since the project was first put out for consideration. The Virginia Department of Transportation's most recent estimate is that it will take about $1.5 billion to build the new road, which it recently decided to start calling the Interstate 85 Connector - somewhat mystifyingly, since the new road will not actually connect directly with I-85.

VDOT will review any detailed proposals it receives and make a recommendation in March to state Transportation Commissioner Gregory A. Whirley. If a proposal is accepted, signing of a contract would follow in May. Transportation officials have said they expect construction to take about five years.

- On a considerably smaller scale but with a high profile locally, construction of a new courthouse in Colonial Heights is expected to start sometime this spring. The $13.5 million project on the former site of Colonial Heights Baptist Church is scheduled to be finished next year.

- Meanwhile, the first phase of the $25 million renovation of Hopewell High School is on track for completion this month. Several classrooms have already been renovated and are being used. Improvements to the athletic complex and the construction of a new game-day facility are under way.

- A major education-related change is on the agenda for this summer. The longtime president of Richard Bland College, Dr. James B. McNeer, plans to retire as of June 30.

McNeer, who joined the state's only public junior college in 1968 and has been its president since 1996, has overseen a huge expansion at the affiliate of the College of William and Mary, including the opening in 2008 of two residence halls, a $27 million project that made Richard Bland the only two-year college in Virginia with on-campus student housing.

- Also on the calendar this year and likely to draw a lot of people's attention is the election in November, along with the campaigning and primaries leading up to it.

In addition to the already high-pitched presidential campaigns, Virginians will be choosing a successor for U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who chose not to run for reelection. Two former governors, Republican George Allen and Democrat Tim Kaine, have been out on the campaign trail for months now, with the contest likely to heat up in the new year.

Locally, two incumbent U.S. Representatives J. Randy Forbes (R-4th) and Eric I. Cantor (R-7th) have yet to face any opposition.

Because of redistricting, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-3rd) no longer represents any of the Tri-Cities.

- Finally, the Tri-Cities will get some time in the spotlight from Hollywood later this year.

Producer-director Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" - some of it filmed recently in Petersburg - is scheduled to open in theaters sometime after the November elections. The movie, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's American History Book Prize-winner, "Team of Rivals," stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones and many others.

- On a somewhat smaller scale, Grammy-nominated singer and former Petersburg resident Trey Songz will make his acting debut in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D," the latest remake of the 1974 horror classic about a group of teens who run into a family of cannibals in Texas. The film is scheduled for release in October.