Federal Manager's Daily Report

Energy Department sites generally are participating in the energy incentive programs available to them in their areas, the department’s IG has said, recouping several million dollars in recent years.

Federal entities are eligible for a variety of incentive programs offered by state agencies and utility providers, the report said, including incentives for energy-efficient, new construction and energy conservation measures in existing facilities. Further, the National Energy Conservation Policy Act directs agencies to take advantage of such incentives to reduce direct energy costs to the government.

The report said that certain arms of DoE cannot participate in certain incentive programs due to mission requirements and some utilities choose not to offer further incentives to government agencies because they already offer energy at favorable rates to those facilities.

The auditors said that the seven sites they reviewed generally had taken as much advantage of such incentives as they could, including an accelerator facility and laboratory that had received about $800,000 and $1.8 million since 2010 for participation in curtailment programs offered by their utility providers, and another lab that received more than $350,000 in incentive funding for conservation projects in that time.

However, the report added that there were some missed opportunities because personnel “were not consistently focused on or aware of” available incentive programs. Management agreed with recommendations toward that end and said it already had taken steps to take fuller advantage of energy incentives.