HUNTSVILLE, Ala. --After receiving new guidance from the Office of the Secretary of Defense earlier this month, the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center’s Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program validation team is re-opening Fiscal 2024 projects to ensure compliance with the OSD’s Modernization and Climate Initiative.
The ERCIP team is opening any Fiscal 2024 projects that don’t have carbon free solutions and updating the projects to fulfill the criteria, said Yelena Fykes, ERCIP project manager.
Huntsville Center’s ERCIP Validation Program is the Army’s ERCIP requirement development experts providing planning and technical support to the Army by validating all ERCIP projects before they are submitted to OSD to compete for funding.
“We are focusing on implementing distributed, low-carbon energy alternatives (solar and wind), battery storage, and microgrids to remediate mission risks since the DoD is pursuing ways to rapidly lower global carbon emissions, while also enhancing resilience to climate change,” Fykes said.
In addition to the climate change criteria, OSD provided a list of other prioritization criteria for ERCIP Projects in its Fiscal 2024 Guidance.
The importance of contribution to energy resilience, energy security, and mission readiness and assurance at an installation will be the priority in evaluating and prioritizing projects, Fykes said. “All of criteria will be utilized to evaluate projects submitted for ERCIP funding.”
Fykes said the ERCIP team had productive discussions with Army Office of Energy Initiative professionals on Fiscal 25 cycle last October and the deadlines were set to complete and submit DD1391 forms in July, and all projects will be submitted to OSD in August.
Due to the updates, Fykes said there will be a slight delay in the verification process.
“Consequently, ERCIP will be picking up Fiscal 25 projects in the fall instead of the summer.”