More than 320,000 Wisconsin veterans know the Milwaukee Veterans Administration Medical Center and programs on the large campus very well. The Milwaukee VAMC delivers primary, secondary, and tertiary medical care providing more than 600,000 outpatient visits annually, offers educational opportunities and rehabilitation services, provides compensation payments for disabilities or death related to military service, home loan guaranties, pensions, burials, and health care that includes the services of nursing homes, clinics, and medical centers.

Saving lives, Saving Energy, Saving Money

What you don’t see and is the facility operations staff saving millions of taxpayer dollars via energy-efficiency projects reducing energy consumption.

Since 2013, the Milwaukee VMAC has participated in energy savings upgrades and retrofits including boiler upgrades, steam trap replacement and maintenance, pipe insulation upgrades as well as addressing deficiencies in their building automation system to tighten control while still offering maximum comfort for veterans and staff. Massive lighting retrofits occurred over several areas.

All these projects were supplemented with incentives from Focus on Energy as well as our utility partner, We Energies. In total, these energy conservation measures have saved 52,000 therms and 4,000,000 kWh of electricity. That’s enough to power 606 homes in Milwaukee for a year.

Each of the last three years, the VA has seen their annual energy bill drop by $6 million. For electrical costs alone, bills have been reduced by 30%.

Take a deeper dive with the staff at the VA accomplishing energy efficiency while focused on caring for those who served our country.