Beginning as early as June 2, troops and families living in Air Force privatized housing will no longer receive as generous utility rebates — and some who use more power than average may have to pay.
The Air Force said in a Friday release that it will soon start basing its utility allowances for privatized housing on monthly meter readings. About 75 percent of residents are expected to either be billed up to $8 a month for using more energy than average for similar houses in their area, have no bill or rebate, or get rebates of up to $8 if they use less power than average.
Under the old system — which has been in effect for the past 13 years — the Air Force based its privatized housing utility allowances on a five-year rolling average, with a 10 percent "buffer" that gave residents more leeway to go over the average. But in a Friday interview, Jennifer Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, said that meant roughly 80 percent of residents got refunds of varying amounts on their power usage.
This was unsustainable, Miller said.
"That's millions of dollars that are not going into the project to provide for community amenities, to build a new roof, to maintain or sustain a community pool," Miller said. Miller said those saved funds will now stay in the housing communities.
In an email — which was later obtained by the unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco and posted online May 18 — Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James Cody estimated that the change would save each of the Air Force's 63 housing projects about $11 million over the lifetime of the housing projects, resulting in a total of nearly $700 million over at least the next 35 years.
Current housing residents will have a one-year grandfather period during which they will receive the old utility allowances and rebates, the Air Force said. Residents who move to a new home will immediately fall under the new system.
The new system brings the Air Force roughly in line with other services, which have calculated their allowances based on monthly averages for years.
Miller said the Air Force is calculating utility averages by comparing houses in the same area that have the same number of floors and bedrooms, similar square footage, and were built around the same time. That way, for example, older houses that aren't as well insulated aren't used to set utility standards for newer, more energy-efficient houses or vice versa.
The Air Force will also throw out the 10 percent of users gobbling the most energy, and the 10 percent using the least energy as it calculates averages. That way, Miller said, extreme users or conservers don't blow the curve for everyone else.
"We're not trying to encourage irrational, extreme behavior" such as not using the heat during a blizzard or air conditioning during a heat wave, Miller said. "We just want to encourage energy conservation by looking at, what is the average person using?"
The Air Force is now in the process of installing meters on its remaining homes to allow it to measure and, if necessary, bill energy consumption. The rollout of those meters — along with a growing interest in improving energy conservation and saving money for amenities and other improvements — prompted the Air Force to make this change.
The Air Force said that there are now 43,354 privatized housing units with service members and family members living in them.
Stephen Losey covers personnel, promotions, and the Air Force Academy for Air Force Times. He can be reached at slosey@airforcetimes.com.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
