Airport clients’ energy needs are evolving as they strive to improve energy resiliency and meet other strategic goals, including sustainability. Hanson assisted the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), a part of the Transportation Research Board, with developing the ACRP Research Report 260: Airport Energy Resiliency Roadmap. The project objective was providing airports a resource for navigating these changes.
The primer highlights the importance of airport energy resiliency to airport leaders. The roadmap provides a step-by-step process for airport staff and stakeholders to develop a custom plan for the airport and provide data to the airport’s decisionmakers to generate support for the implementation. These products assist the airport with the most critical elements of energy resiliency, identifying its starting point — the energy baseline — and forming a plan in partnership with its stakeholders, including its utility, to improve its energy resiliency. These products serve airports of all sizes to help the airport get started and communicate successes to build momentum.
The guidebook includes information about how to conduct vulnerability assessments; plan for acute and long-term energy resiliency; track and inventory energy demand and usage; understand supply capacity; forecast future demand; conduct cost-benefit analysis; identify geographic differences and their stressors, such as natural disasters; understand infrastructure requirements, including storage and distribution; identify physical, fiscal, technological and regulatory constraints and opportunities; engage with stakeholders, including local residents; and identify potential local community benefits.
As part of the study process, Hanson conducted case study interviews encompassing 20 airports, several community entities and two military bases. The guidebook includes a summary of the airport energy resiliency activities at the case-study facilities.
For information about Hanson’s work on other ACRP guidebooks, visit ACRP Best Practices for Airport Obstruction Management, ACRP Guidebook for Managing Small Airports updates and ACRP Airside WebResource.
