Microgrids: One Thing I Wish the Military Would Bring to the Civilian World

U.S. military gets serious about microgrids … which is more exciting than it sounds

The Department of Defense has bases in the U.S. and forward operating bases in theaters of war like Afghanistan. In both cases, providing reliable electricity, a strategic and tactical necessity for an increasingly wired military, is a challenge. One way the military is meeting that challenge is developing microgrids, which are way cooler than they sound.

The two types of DOD bases face the same challenge, but for different reasons. In Afghanistan, the diesel generators that provide electricity at bases are the top consumer of fuel on the battlefield. And it’s not just any fuel, it’s high-grade jet fuel, trucked into the country in caravans that cross treacherous, hostile territory and are frequently attacked. The “fully burdened cost” of that fuel — the cost of the fuel plus the costs of transporting and protecting it — can reach into the hundreds of dollars per gallon, especially at the smaller forward bases.

One way to reduce that fuel use is to generate more power on site, through distributed generation technologies like solar or waste-to-power plants. Another is to use that power more efficiently. And another is to network the base’s power sources and loads together into a microgrid that can be managed intelligently. For the bigger bases, it means they can be self-sustaining and not rely on primitive grids. For the smaller units up on the front lines, there are “mobile tactical microgrids,” which are small, modular systems that are easy to set up and disassemble, allowing a balance of connectivity and mobility....