Every now and then the Cavalry Scouts out there come across a great piece of intel and share same. I have a special place in my heart for Cavalrymen. I like to say that I was raised by them, but that I am ok now. SmartGridNews.com has an excellent piece on DOD efforts on smart grid activities. The key to energy security is the smart grid. Demand reduction is critical and every location has some type of renewable energy potential, but if you do not have the means to optimize the balance between supply and demand, we are back to what John Spiller likes to call the "Swartzkopf method of providing power". The Swartzkopf method goes like this: "Tell me what your peak load is, then I will provide that generation and double if for back up". It is how we get 19Mw of production at Camp Leatherneck to meet a 5MW load (long since fixed). By DOD standards, this is a small contract, but anything that moves the team closer to the goal line is worth doing. The inclusion of a storage systems can help intermittent renewables serve around the clock. The challenge there is getting that stored power back at a reasonable price. The system is also intended to allow recharging of electric vehicles, another key step in fusing the transportation systems with the electrical grid.
Since this is happening at Wheeler Army Airfield, I am assuming this is part of the SPIDERS JCTD. Anyone with better intel, please comment. The article also has a link to a piece that discusses the Installation Test Bed Program, mention here a couple of weeks ago. The $30 million requested in the FY2012 budget for this program appears to have materialized as around $36M after the last CR and Defense Budget was passed. Anyone with better intel, please comment.
In the last couple of posts there have been undefined or ill defined acronyms. Alert readers have commented on those and I have tried to circle back and fix those errors. I will include undefined acronyms at the end of each piece in the future. All of the comments, even the anatomically impossible ones, have been helpful; keep 'em coming! Next week, I will be at the AUSA ILW Installations Symposium and Exposition and will report from there. Dan Nolan
Acronym Soup
- SPIDERS: Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security
- JCTD: Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstation
2 comments:
The SCMG is not part of SPIDERS, but is part of the overall PACOM Energy Partnership Startegy portfolio sponsored by TARDEC R&D. It consists of two seperate projects of which SCMG #1 has recently been commissioned. SCMG #2 will feature three small grids ranging from stationary to mobile and integrating solar and wind for genration.
JCTD is Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration. . . great posts guys, keep the knots up!
Stoli
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