National IGE Report: September-October 2023

Established to address key issues facing the joint engineer community and enhance federal project delivery, SAME’s National IGE Projects utilize the technical expertise of the membership and a shared commitment to service to make a measurable impact in fostering effective collaboration.

In August 2023, a pair of new initiatives were given the green light to move ahead as National IGE Projects. The first, sponsored by the Energy & Sustainability COI, focuses on electric vehicle deployment. The second, co-sponsored by the Architectural Practice COI and Resilience COI, looks at the alignment of federal facility policy and how to balance innovative capabilities within lifecycle planning.

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Challenge

With the rapid adoption of electric vehicles and mandates issued through recent Executive Orders, there is a large disconnect between the available electric infrastructure and the required kilowatts to properly charge and manage these fleets. Each federal agency is approaching this challenge in a unique manner, which risks inefficient scope and deployment, increased overall cost to government, and confusion to industry supporting the expansion.

This project will aim to address the consistency of analysis, evaluation, and scope development of electric vehicle infrastructure through a series of focal areas.

• Increase education and awareness related to electric vehicle deployment and facility readiness.
• Develop best practices on electric distribution expansion and enhancement.
• Review electric system upgrade and deployment implementation.
• Evaluate government owned versus personally owned vehicle charging, and future system planning.

As part of this National IGE Project, the Energy & Sustainability COI will lead several events and discussions and focus on community and infrastructure impacts.

Planning for Installation, Campus and Facility Innovation

In meeting mission requirements for facilities within the limits of constrained budgets, federal agencies face myriad complexities. The battlefield is rapidly changing with new platforms and technologies such as autonomous operations and artificial intelligence, as well as indirect digital threats. From maintenance and repair backlogs to sustainability and resilience requirements, leaders have little time to consider rapidly evolving operational requirements.

To better prepare for that future, however, those in charge of federal installations would benefit from industry expertise in answering a series of interconnected questions.

• What are the compelling threats to mission assurance?
• How might future scenarios change the nature of these threats?
• What strategic planning parameters and facility development principles should be embraced and which should be updated?
• What innovation capabilities would offer value if incorporated into facility planning guidance?
• How do we develop facilities to be lifecycle cost-effective?
• How do we meet environmental, sustainability, and resilience requirements?

This National IGE Project proposes a “Futures Group” to support federal agency leads on the alignment of emerging strategic capabilities with federal facility planning and propose recommended policies, best practices, and new planning principles.

In the near term, the group will focus on timing, availability of funds, and requirements. Additional goals and requirements to review include national goals (infrastructure performance); departmental goals (restoration, sustainment, and maintenance); operator requirements (infrastructure demands to support federal operations); and technical requirements (assurance of mission support).

In the long term, the project aims to develop a common unclassified understanding of the threats and opportunities to a facility’s ability to meet mission requirements and collaborate on emerging capabilities to enhance operational effectiveness, resilience, efficiency, and sustainability.

The Futures Group will be guided by an integration team, to be composed of representatives from each service along with industry representatives and Community of Interest members. This committee will set the direction for the Futures Group, define the operational perspective, and guide the four working groups (Resilience, Technology, Efficiency/Infrastructure, and Workforce).

These working groups will define the desired aspects of future installations, culminating in recommended policies and best practices to federal master planning organizations as well as potential updates to federal facility planning guidance.