COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The Air Force revised its Utility Allowance policy to ensure quality on-base housing for military families and to continue to cover utility costs for the average energy consumer.
The revised policy will now be calculated using monthly meter readings with no buffer, instead of the five-year rolling average with a 10-percent buffer the previous policy used.
In order to ease the transition to the new calculation, current occupants at Columbus Air Force Base will continue to receive the 10-percent buffer until June 30, 2017, or until they move out of their current privatized home, whichever comes first.
Under the former policy, military privatized housing projects spent hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on rebates that went to residents whose actual energy consumption rates were above average. This meant, Air Force-wide, privatized housing income went toward above-average rebates each year, diverting funds from key program features like maintenance support, housing modernization and community amenities.
Under the new policy, the utility allowance will still be determined by the average consumption rates of homes assembled in “like-type” groups at every installation, and will still be carved out of basic allowance for housing. The new policy also still supports the rebate system. However, the rebates will only go to those users who fall below the average user rate and a bill will be generated for users who exceed the average user rate.
The Air Force estimates 75 percent of residents will be within $8 of the allowance. The new policy empowers residents in privatized housing to manage their energy consumption, much like their off-base counterparts, and rewards those who are more energy conscious. The intent has always been to promote energy conservation by rewarding residents with less-than-average energy consumption through rebates. The new policy allows the Air Force to better meet that intent.