Electric cooperatives have a long history of serving military bases, with over 125 co-ops now providing power, transmission or energy services to defense installations across 41 states.

Microgrids are part of that mission, enabling the Department of Defense to maintain reliability and resilience even if the broader power grid is compromised by extreme weather or other outages. Those advantages are prompting more co-ops to look at using microgrids to serve military bases and could help co-ops run the rest of their systems more efficiently.

“Microgrids provide DoD the opportunity to enhance resiliency in the event of bulk grid disruption,” says Lauren Khair, NRECA senior director for energy research and resilience. “There are mission critical functions on military installations that can’t be down for even a brief period of time.”

Along with providing electricity, co-op microgrids help military bases add resilience, efficiency, renewable generation and other key systems and services into their operations.

CHELCO

Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative has served parts of Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle since the 1960s. In 2017, the co-op began serving the base under a 50-year utility privatization (UP) contract in which the co-op owns and maintains the transmission and distribution electrical infrastructure on the base.

They can also offer “several benefits to distribution providers unavailable from other generation means. It may also be part of a resolution to the expansion of transmission capacity in the nation, given the expense and difficulty in planning and constructing new transmission networks.”

Avery says building microgrids for military bases is a valuable testbed for addressing the ongoing changes in the power industry.

“Some areas of the country are testing the ability of distribution providers to provide utility-scale DER generation,” he says. “It’s possible that, as technology becomes less costly and more convenient to use, we may see decentralized generation employed on a larger scale.”

CHELCO’s team sees their support of Eglin AFB as a point of pride.

“It’s been an honor to serve our military through the UP contract with Eglin,” says CEO Steve Rhodes. “We have continually sought to meet and exceed the base’s expectations—both present and future—and these microgrids provide a crucial layer of resilience to ensure minimal disruption and added mission assurance should a major event, such as a hurricane or adversarial threat, impact the transmission or distribution system.”

High West Energy

In Wyoming, High West Energy is in the initial phases of deploying a new microgrid to serve F.E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne. After the design stage, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will assess cost estimates to decide whether to advance the project. If the Corps approves it, the Pine Bluffs, Wyoming-based co-op will finalize the microgrid design in the next couple of years before starting construction.

High West has served Warren Air Force Base since 2008 and provided power to missile sites within their service territory in parts of Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and around the base since 1962.

“We feel that we have the expertise to contribute to this project to ensure this system functions as it is to be expected,” High West CEO and General Manager Jared Routh says. “This is a great opportunity for High West Energy to continue the cooperative tradition.”

High West says the project will make the neighboring grid more resilient as well as improve reliability by making the base less reliant on outside generation. But the benefits of this microgrid could extend beyond F.E. Warren Air Force Base, according to the co-op.

“For our members, this initiative could expand our distributed energy resources and provide valuable insights on how to apply this knowledge within our own systems,” Routh says.

The project could enhance High West’s security strategies and use of battery storage, helping the co-op to manage loads and electric costs during peak demand periods, he adds.

“Our goal is to uphold cooperative values by being part of something greater and delivering solutions that support both our members and national defense efforts,” Routh says.

Sussex REC

Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative in New Jersey operates and maintains the electric system for Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County. The military base gets power from an investor-owned utility but is seeking permission to have Sussex REC operate a microgrid.

A microgrid could allow the arsenal to completely isolate from the IOU’s delivery points and operate regardless of issues outside the base’s borders, says Mike Osborne, director of engineering and operations for the Sussex, New Jersey-based co-op.

“This reduces the exposure risk from an environment outside of the military’s control,” he says. “A good example of this is Superstorm Sandy [in 2012], where the base had minimal damage to its grid, but the IOU’s feeds were down for days. A microgrid would have allowed the base full functionality during this time.”

Microgrid UP “provided a very good cost/benefit analysis of the various options of microgrid deployment” at Picatinny, according to Osborne.

The software showed that one option—using a substation-level microgrid—offered full resiliency at the lowest cost. Substation-level microgrids involve deploying generation and control equipment at substations to power connected circuits when transmission supply is unavailable. That option required a lower capital expenditure than multiple smaller microgrids and would cover the base’s entire electric power needs, Osborne says.

“The advantages of microgrids goes back to ensuring reliability and resilience for the war fighter,” NRECA’s Khair says. “Cooperatives are the trusted energy partners at many military installations and are a perfect choice to operate microgrids because of their deep community and grid expertise.”