REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. — Building on the success of past Energy Exchange workshops, and with the intent of expanding the discussion on topics applicable to all military installations, the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center Huntsville (Huntsville Center) annual energy contracting workshop for stakeholders, utility providers and energy service companies has grown.

Formerly known as Huntsville Center’s Energy Exchange, the event is now the Military Energy Performance Contracting (MEPcon) Forum, expanding this year to include nearly all branches of service.

Past Energy Exchange workshops were generally focused on Huntsville Center’s third-party financing (TPF) capabilities in the Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) and Utility Energy Services Contracting (UESC) programs.

The Aug. 12-15 MEPcon Forum’s first day was held at Huntsville Center and the following days at the Jackson Center at Cummings Research Park. The forum focused on service-wide TPF, ESPC and UESC programs and projects utilizing private capital to make infrastructure improvements and new efficiencies without tapping into the capital budget to support and enable the warfighter while meeting energy and environmental mandates.

Attending this year’s event were more than 200 ESPC and UESC leads from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and ESCO representatives supporting service various service branch energy contracts.

By working together with Office of the Secretary of Defense and other agencies, MEPcon participants focused its sessions on developing alignment and symmetry to achieve energy and climate goals at military installations around the world.

Rebecca Isacowitz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy Resilience & Optimization, attended the first two days of the forum. She said the forum is a great opportunity to focus on energy resilience through TPF.

Isacowitz is responsible for providing policy and governance for programs and activities that enable energy resilience for systems and installations.

“The conversations are really great for the future and where we want to be, and I want to continue to participate and lead and see what we can all do together,” she said.

Gregory Lane, MEPcon Forum lead, said TPF is a complicated business, and he believes the forum has great value since attendees are under the Department of Defense umbrella.

However, just because they are all working toward the same goal, there are differences, Lane said.

“Folks in the room may have similar approaches but maybe different thoughts,” he said.

“Diversity is key, because the Army looks at their challenges a little differently than the Navy, the Air Force or the Coast Guard and hearing different perspectives allows that diversity in the conversation.

Lane said Energy Contractor (ESCO) representatives attending enhances the conversation too.

“Bringing in the ESCOs – our partners in this process – is really a good perspective from their shoes about what the Army is doing better that maybe the Navy and Air Force should consider,” he said.

One of the top priorities of MEPcon allowed attendees to gain a better understanding of new and emerging TPF tools, such as Energy Resilience & Conservation Investment Programs (ERCIPs) and Energy Service Agreements (ESAs), to help all the services progress in the often-challenging environment of energy resilience.

“There are a lot of factors that go into making a project successful and it really is a team sport,” Lane said.

Other areas discussed included the integration of cybersecurity into TPF projects, deep energy retrofits, and performance contracting implementation.