On September 14, 2016, the Defense Logistics Agency awarded a utilities privatization contract to Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO) to own, operate, and maintain the electrical system infrastructure at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for 50 years.
One of the most important benefits we’ve delivered to Eglin has been considerable outage reductions and faster restoration times. Since the contract started
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We’ve reduced outages by 34% (fewer outages)
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Improved SAIDI by 40% (outage length reduced)
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Decreased CAIDI by 38% (restoration times improved).
Eglin UP Benefits All
Serving Eglin AFB enables your electric cooperative to offset certain operational costs by spreading these costs across a broader member-owner base. This helps the cooperative to maintain affordable rates for its residential and commercial members. This partnership ultimately benefits the entire co-op community by strengthening financial sustainability while supporting a key regional military installation.
Members Supporting Military Missions
Along with CHELCO's support as a mission partner, CHELCO members can also help various non-profits serving veterans through donations to Operation Round Up. See photos below of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(19) organizations who have received an Operation Round Up Grant. To learn more about Operation Round Up, click here.
Military-Related Community Events
At CHELCO, our commitment goes beyond providing reliable electrical service—we’re proud to support the military community living and working on base. We actively engage with service members through a variety of programs and events, including Honorary Commander inductions, open house events, military and veterans appreciation breakfasts, changes of command ceremonies, and key immersion briefings. These efforts reflect our deep respect and appreciation for the men and women who serve, and our dedication to being an active partner in the military community.
Rural Electric Magazine Feature
Press Releases
DeFuniak Springs (Aug. 31, 2022) – It has been five years since CHELCO was awarded the utility privatization (UP) contract to serve Eglin AFB, and CHELCO’s presence on base has promoted reliability and an overall improved energy grid.
Utility Privatization is a program the government uses to transfer ownership, maintenance and operation of government-owned assets and infrastructure to a company or cooperative through a bill of sale. What the UP contract means for CHELCO and Eglin AFB is that CHELCO now owns and maintains all electric transmission and distribution infrastructure on base.
CEO Steve Rhodes recalled that winning the 50-year contract took a great effort spanning several years. “Our employees, both on base and off, have risen to the challenge of taking on this monumental new and ongoing project and hit the ball out of the park,” Rhodes said. “Over the next 45 years, I’m confident that CHELCO will provide the high level of service that Eglin and all of our members expect and deserve.”
SVP of Engineering and Operations Matthew Avery said he’s proud CHELCO helps support the military. “Knowing that we are helping support our national interests by providing reliable, resilient service to Eglin AFB is very rewarding,” Avery said.
Rocky Hudson, CHELCO’s Director of Engineering and Operations for Eglin AFB, said base personnel have commended CHELCO on their response times to outages and their overall efforts to upgrade the Eglin system. “We’ve completed all initial system deficiency corrections, and now we’ve turned our focus toward rebuilding the system as it comes due for repairs and replacements.”
CHELCO is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative serving more than 60,000 accounts in Walton, Okaloosa, Holmes and Santa Rosa counties.
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Eglin to privatize all four utility systems
Published
By Jessica Dupree
AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Defense Logistics Agency awarded a utilities privatization contract to Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, or CHELCO, to own, operate and maintain the electrical system infrastructure at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida for 50 years.
Having previously privatized the water, waste water and gas utility systems, this contract award makes Eglin AFB, which is the largest installation within the continental United States, the second Air Force installation to privatize all four utility systems.
"This is another significant step forward for Eglin AFB toward a more efficient, resilient and reliable energy program with an outstanding energy partner in CHELCO," said Col. Craig Johnson, commander of the 96th Civil Engineer Group at Eglin.
American States Utility Services was awarded the base’s water and waste water utility systems this past July and Okaloosa Gas was awarded the gas utility system in 2005. CHELCO joins these companies to make all the installation’s utility systems privatized.
“CHELCO is excited to be supporting the infrastructure on Eglin AFB as we have always been very supportive of the military community we serve,” said Steve Rhodes, CHELCO chief executive officer. “We are looking forward to working with existing utility companies that already serve the base.”
Eglin AFB covers more than 640 square miles of land in Northwest Florida. The large footprint of the installation posed a unique challenge to awarding the contract, said David Mathews, project manager at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center at Tyndall AFB, Florida.
“There are multiple sites of electrical infrastructure that cover the entire Florida panhandle,” Mathews said. “We visited every site to determine if there was infrastructure to put in the solicitation. The distance that separates all of the units made it time-consuming.”
The base’s geographical area also makes it difficult to assure a constant power supply with the existing infrastructure. For $20 million over the first five years of the project, CHELCO and Air Force civil engineering personnel have planned 12 projects for Eglin AFB, six of which are projected to add to the installation’s resiliency by improving the ability to recover after a power outage. For example, the installation is currently separated into two grids, with no way to exchange power between them. CHELCO will add an interconnect between the grids so, if one goes down, power can be supplied from the other.
“The base has been trying to get this funded for many years,” said Richard Weston, chief of utilities privatization at AFCEC. “Currently, the base is not agile enough to reconfigure after an outage. This will improve the resiliency of the base grid immensely.”
While civil engineering personnel at Eglin AFB and AFCEC did not begin privatizing Eglin utilities with the intention of privatizing all four systems, it became a goal when they realized the potential for savings. The three contracts at Eglin have a total cost avoidance of more than $161 million over the lifespans of each contract.
“There is a sense of accomplishment every step of the way,” said Jeep Wedding, the Air Force utilities privatization program manager. “Every step toward getting one more system privatized is getting us closer to our goals.”
The UP efforts at Eglin are also part of a larger plan to modernize the installation.
“It is all part of our plan to recapitalize the installation in a program we call NexGen Eglin," Johnson said. “We aim to transform a proud, but tired, mid-20th-century installation into a revitalized 21st-century installation, enabling cutting-edge research, development, test and evaluation programs, and Team Eglin missions to produce war-winning capabilities for the warfighter.”
Utilities privatization allows the Air Force to focus their civil engineering manpower on mission-critical issues, while the utility companies assure the utility systems are maintained and operating to industry standards.
The Air Force has privatized 71 utility systems with a total life-cycle cost avoidance of $681 million.
Team Eglin Mission Video
Rising out of the escalating demands of World War II, Team Eglin's history is one of intrigue, innovation and discovery. From the secret training of the Doolittle Raiders on Eglin fields in 1942 to the first test of the mother of all bombs, modern-day Eglin evolved from a storied and honorable past, spanning five wars, to become one of the largest and most dynamic installations in the Department of Defense.
