Distributed Energy Resources, Energy Efficiency, Microgrids  -  November 24, 2021

Texas Army Base Aims for Resiliency with Microgrid

A microgrid located at Fort Hood’s Robert Gray Army Airfield in Texas demonstrated it was able to operate independently from the utility grid. 

The effort was demonstrated by Golden, Colorado-based power management company Eaton in partnership with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and the Department of Public Works. The effort is the result of grants Eaton received from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Eaton researchers demonstrated the microgrid’s ability to seamlessly “island” itself from the grid and optimize the use of sustainable power and energy storage to minimize operation of the on-site backup generators. The generators never came on during the short demonstration.

“Eaton’s demonstration of long-term resiliency at a critical asset such as the Robert Gray Army Airfield is an important milestone for the implementation of resilient infrastructure at military installations,” said Bryan Farrens, senior manager, government programs of Eaton in a statement. 

“Air-strike training, for example, is a key mission that historically would be at-risk if there was a long-term loss of utility power. With this effort, we are proving that with intelligent controls, installations like Fort Hood across the military can rely more on sustainable resources such as solar to meet the resilience targets.”

The microgrid controller leverages Eaton’s automatic transfer switches and recloser controller to separate the Robert Gray Army Airfield from the grid. The microgrid uses the energy storage, backup generators, solar power, and uninterruptible power system to ensure the airfield continues to operate for a minimum of 14 days to meet Army Directive 2020-03 (Installation Energy and Water Resilience Policy).

An advanced microgrid controller manages the safety of the power system with an integrated protection system that communicates at a high speed between the utility connection and the building controllers. This allows the system to minimize any downtime on an outage on the distribution line and protects the equipment and operators.

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