The VA’s efforts to become more environmentally friendly through the installation of solar panel systems on some of its buildings has suffered from “planning errors, design changes, a lengthy interconnection process, and contractor delays,” the department’s IG has reported.
Auditors reviewed 11 of 15 solar projects awarded from fiscal year 2010 through 2013 that were a work-in-progress as of May 2015, only five of which were finished as of July 2016. “As a result, VA did not increase renewable energy for those solar projects in the time frame planned and incurred additional costs through needed contract modifications,” it said.
It cited as an example a facility that it said did not effectively plan the installation of a solar panel system, with the result that the system is not completed and is not generating power. “The project experienced significant delays . . . as a result, the solar project is expected to be fully completed in January 2017, over four years beyond its original completion date, with unexpected costs of approximately $1.5 million,” the report said.
The VA partially agreed with recommendations to set additional controls to prevent solar panel conflicts, share best practices for executing timely interconnection agreements, set power generation monitoring controls, and conduct lessons learned assessments.
