Defense Installation Energy Resilience for Changing Operational Requirements

Janice Mallery,Douglas L Van Bossuyt,Anthony Pollman

doi:10.3390/designs6020028

Abstract

We propose a methodology to determine the impact of different potential mission scenarios upon energy resilience for mission-critical loads attached to a military base’s microgrid infrastructure. The proposed methodology applies to any installation with changing operational states that has energy-resilience requirements. The proposed methodology may be used by energy managers to account for potential mission scenarios that a base may be part of, followed by assessing the microgrid energy resilience to supply the critical loads for said mission scenarios, especially where the external grid power may be unavailable and/or damage to microgrid components may be present. In the event a microgrid design is unable to provide sufficient electrical energy, distributed energy resources and energy storage systems including renewable energy resources may be added to improve energy resilience. A case study is conducted on a fictitious representative military base, microgrid design, and changing mission demands to demonstrate the application of the proposed methodology. This article contributes a methodology for energy managers to evaluate energy resilience using microgrids by accounting for potential mission scenarios, their energy requirements, resulting energy preparedness, and recommendations for improvement, as necessary.

Highlights

The importance of electrical energy to successfully execute defense and national security missions is increasing
All potential failure or hazard scenarios should have been identified and analyzed by Decision Point 2, we suggest that practitioners double-check that there are not any newly identified or emerging scenarios that should be included in the analysis
This article presents a system-engineering method to analyze the impact on energy resilience of missions that a facility may be required to undertake on short notice due a changing operational environment

Summary

Introduction

The importance of electrical energy to successfully execute defense and national security missions is increasing. Lack of readily available power impacts mission readiness and effectiveness of militaries and other organizations entrusted with national security missions. In order to ensure that electrical energy is available, electricity supplies must be reliable, resilient, and secure. 10 U.S.C §101(e)(6) defines energy resilience as “the ability to avoid, prepare for, minimize, adapt to, and recover from anticipated and unanticipated energy disruptions to ensure energy availability and reliability sufficient to provide for ... The US Department of Defense (DOD) requires facilities to collaborate with tenants, mission owners, and operators to ensure power is continuously available for critical operations [9]. The priorities for energy supply during failure events need to be established based upon the critical missions a facility performs [11]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion