Working on contracts supporting Huntsville Center’s Energy Savings Performance Contracting and Utility Energy Services Contracting programs presents unique challenges in that it can take up to two years to award a contract.
Finding innovative solutions to the challenges not only contributed to the success of the Huntsville Center programs, but also led to the Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program and other government agencies seeking out Oksana Joye, the lead contracting officer for the programs, for her help in expanding and improving their energy savings programs.
For these reasons, Joye was awarded the 2016 Secretary of the Army Awards for Excellence in Contracting for Specialized Services and Construction Contracting.
Joye, who no longer works for Huntsville Center, managed contracts for the third-party financing programs (ESPC and UESC) and conventional funded programs (Resource Efficiency Managers/Commercial Utilities Program) and Energy Information Management).
ESPC and UESC projects are highly complex and unique in that each contract for an energy savings project can take up to two years to award based on the number of energy inefficient facilities identified on an installation, said Adam Sunstrom, contracting officer for the Energy Branch.
“Furthermore, the contractor or utility company obtains third-party financing or up-fronts the initial capital investment costs, only getting reimbursed when actual energy cost savings are realized during the up-to25 year performance period,” Sunstrom said. “Under each contract, the energy savings contractor or utility company provides the expertise to assess the energy savings opportunities for the government, designs and installs the improvements or employs new renewable energy technology for the energy and water efficiency improvements on government facilities.”
These programs aid in meeting the Army’s 30 percent energy and 15 percent water reduction goals and the President’s Energy Savings Performance-Based Contracting Investment Initiative of $4 billion by the end of 2016.
“Joye oversaw the administration of 3 separate ESPC contract suites totaling $3.1 billion that have 25-year performance periods and just under 20 UESC awards totaling $465 million that may have 10-year to 25-year performance periods,” Sunstrom said. “She also supervised mentored and trained a team of contract specialists identifying and implementing improvements for the acquisition process and administration of these unique contracts.
“She identified and resolved numerous complex contractual issues that had plagued the ESPC and UESC programs,” Sunstrom said. “Because the contracts have up to a 25-year performance period, administration and oversight is a significant challenge. Ms. Joye continuously identified lessons learned and developed new processes and procedures to help ensure every phase of the ESPC and UESC contracts are executed consistently. Her procurement processes and procedures have been adopted by the U.S. Air Force and DOE.”
Joye attributes her success to a great team.
“My success would not be possible without my team – basic human trust, our positive thinking and all of our hard work,” said Joye, who is now the team lead contracting officer for the PATRIOT Systems Division, Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.
“We are only as good as the people around us. I would not be able to overcome the everyday obstacles without my team supporting me, my supervisors believing in me, without focus on the mission, without trust and without everyone’s commitment. When leadership has a positive attitude, it effects everyone on the team. I got to achieve the objectives and the mission of my program because I genuinely believed in every single individual on my team, and they believed in me.”