Homes at Navy housing at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor, Bremerton, Keyport, Everett and Whidbey Island are currently being fitted
with gas and electricity meters, and upon completion of the installation and a year-long trial period, residents could begin
receiving bills for their utility usage.
The measure aims to reduce the consumption of electricity and gas in base housing, as well as penalize those who use above
average and reward those who use less. 
The installation of the meters, locally, is scheduled to be completed late 2009 and will only affect privatized base housing
managed by Forest City.
“The goal has always been to install the meters to study consumption and figure ways to conserve energy,” said Forest City
General Manager, Shannon Ramos. “The goal of PPV (public-private venture housing) and the Navy, of course, is to bill back
residents for the usage.”
With the current system, service members who live in base housing surrender all of their basic allowance for housing (BAH)
money for rent and unlimited utilities.  When the new system is in place and a baseline average for gas and electricity has been
determined throughout the different housing floor plans, a portion of a service members’ BAH will be set aside for utilities, and
anything over that baseline consumed will be billed to the tenant.  Conversely, anything below that baseline will be returned to
the tenant as a rebate.
“The intention is always that the service members don’t have to pay out of pocket for utilities because the average consumption
level is evaluated annually and adjusted accordingly,” Ramos said.
Balfour Beatty Communities at Fort Carson, an Army post in Colorado, has had a billing system in place since September 2006
through a similar program.  Their statistics during 19 months of billing (through March 2008) show that on average more bills
than rebates have been issued per month.
Different factors could affect the number of bills and rebates issued to Fort Carson residents, but averaged out, their housing
project has made about $7,400 per month.  As far as utility conservation, the electricity consumption for occupied homes hasn’t
gone down during the 19 months, and gas usage during winter months has only gone down slightly, largely showing some residents
are paying out of pocket vice conserving.
According to Senior Project Executive for the Northwest Housing Privatization Project Michael Nanney, the money the Northwest
housing project makes back from billing residents will go into upgrades and amenities for the local housing developments.
“Our savings translates into better quality of life,” Nanney said. 
While current residents of Northwest base housing might not be here to see the new utility bills, as the program requires a yearlong
mock-billing cycle following the meter installation project, this type of program is being required and implemented DoD wide, and
many service members should expect to see a similar system at other base housing areas in the future.