Energy Savings Project Underway at Coast Guard Academy

An energy efficiency project broke ground on November 20 at the 85-year-old U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The project will bring $39 million in capital improvements to the Academy, reduce overall energy consumption by 48 percent and save the Academy more than $2 million in annual energy costs.

The project is the largest Utility Energy Savings Contract ever awarded by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. It has been two years in planning and design in partnership with Eversource and a technical team from Ameresco.

“When the construction is complete, the Academy will reduce total electricity imported from the grid by nearly 80 percent,” said Rear Admiral Melvin Bouboulis, the Coast Guard's chief engineer. 

The natural gas plant will be supplemented by a combined heat and power plant that will generate one megawatt of electricity onsite with a microturbine generator, another Coast Guard first. The project also includes expanding the central chiller plant, implementing numerous energy and water conservation measures, lighting improvements and the installation of rooftop solar arrays. 

The Academy has been located in New London since 1910. The institution moved from nearby Fort Trumbull to its present location on the West Bank of the Thames River in 1932.