STATEMENT BY ARTHUR J. SCHULTZ, JR. ASSOCIATE DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR VETERANS ADMINISTRATION BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS SENATE PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE November 4, 1975 Gentlemen, I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss the provisions of Senate Bills 2045 and 1392. First, I want to address my remarks to Senate Bill 2045. The Veterans Administration is fully in accord with the purposes of this Bill, and we will offer no opposition to the Bill in general. Frankly, we are just delighted with the ideas expressed in the Bill. However, we would like to point out that it is not clear as to whether the guidelines to be published by the Administrator of the General Services pursuant to Section 4 of the Bill would apply to our loan guaranty program for residences. We believe that this matter should be clarified as to the Bill's application to single family housing guaranteed or insured by the Veterans Administration. Also, it is our understanding that the purpose of this legislation is to establish on a coordinated basis, guidelines which will not impinge upon the statutory authority of the VA to direct and manage its health care facilities and properties. We would assume that the guidelines will represent broad concepts, policies and philosophy rather than being specific, controlling, or regulatory in nature. In reviewing Section 6 of the Bill pertaining to a study and survey by the General Services Administration of all federal agencies procurement in excess of $10,000, the VA has several comments. Even if the report requested in the Bill is limited to procurement for construction, building services, and custom-made equipment, it will be necessary to limit the study to selected examples in each area. An attempt to review all procurement within the three referenced categories would take an inordinate amount of time and funds, since the report is required in one year. There are currently a number of General Services Administra tion and Office of Federal Procurement Policy studies on energy conservation in procurement. One in particular relates to purchase of equipment utilizing Life Cycle Costing Techniques. The VA is in full support of this technique and as studies are completed will utilize life cycle costing. Under these circumstances, we feel that this section needs further clarification. In connection with these Bills which you are considering, permit me to tell you briefly about our involvement in the effort already underway by Government departments and agencies. I speak with some knowledge First, as Associate Deputy Administrator of Veterans Affairs, I have a major responsibility within the VA for our agency's energy conservation program. Second, realistically, I appreciate the relationship now, but particularly long-range, between quality VA hospital care for America's veterans and a successful VA energy conservation and discovery program. The magnitude of the energy crisis and the difficulty of quickly developing satisfactory alternative sources of fuel caused us to approach the problem on four fronts. First, we determined our total energy consumption requirements. For example, we used 34 trillion BTU's of energy throughout the VA hospital system's 5,284 buildings in Fiscal Year 1975. This is the equivalent to the total residential requirements for 167,000 homes. By summarizing our total requirements, we established a base line to monitor our second approach, which was immediate conservation. We did all of the obvious things with which you are familiar, such as reducing light levels in non-critical areas and adjusting thermostats for heating and cooling. We have critically reviewed our equipment maintenance and replacement schedules, and adjusted controls for the In addition, we began the third attack, which involves Retrofit; a term applied to modifying an existing condition to meet the current situation. For example, we are installing storm windows, solar screening, more convenient and selective light controls, and computer assisted load balancing and load shedding controls to coordinate equipment operation throughout the utility system. This computer program will distribute loads to avoid electrical demand peaks and shut down certain systems during specified periods. Not only will we be reducing energy consumption, but we will be saving America's taxpayers a considerable amount on our utility bills, which are often based on peak demand. The fourth advance is the development of new design criteria, and alternative and supplementary fuels or sources of energy. While our design efforts have shown that initial capital investment is increased, some of the systems being studied amortize themselves in reasonably short periods, 4 to 10 years, based on today's fuel costs. Some of the areas we are investigating or using include: 1. Heat Recovery Wheels, which will return some of the energy that would normally be lost through the exhaust air of the building. First introduced to VA in our Phoenix hospital in 1969, it is now a standard VA |