Local Energy Efficiency Co. Makes Good (with DOD)

Local to me, that is. Also local to the point of origin of the USA. That's Lexington, Mass-based FirstFuel Software. The company and its product sound solid, though I'm sure Dan's going to ask why they're not called FifthFuel.

We blogged on the OSD's installation energy test bed program a few months ago HERE, and in one of the embedded links, you can find DOD's description of how it intends to explore FirsFuel's capabilities:

This project will demonstrate the Rapid Building Assessment tool for DoD buildings, a software powered information service for accelerative energy efficiency adoption across building portfolios. The tool uses statistical methods and advanced data mining techniques to provide building-specific performance benchmarks and custom recommendations.

We all know that the numbers of DOD buildings and the square feet they contain boggle the imagination and dwarf Walmart. Now here's what appears to be an ultra-low touch method for rapidly assessing energy performance and identifying the lowest hanging fruit improvements in each across the entire fleet.

You can read a little more on this at online tech-zine Xconomy, one of the best technology news sources you've never heard of. Hmmm, and while they're at it, maybe DOD can test your house (and mine)! Andy Bochman

Testing 1, 2, 3: DOD Facilities Energy Test Bed Project Winners for 2012 Announced

575 tried, 27 succeeded. That's less than a 5% acceptance rate ... tougher than getting into Harvard or MIT I think. But well worth the effort, if some of these energy, energy efficiency and energy security strategies pan out.

OSD has just announced its list of approved test bed pilot projects, each one targeting an aspect of facilities energy use improvement. Categories include objectives with terse titles like:

• Installation of a Nanotechnology Membrane HVAC System
• Model-Driven Energy Intelligence
• Sodium-Metal-Halide Battery Energy Storage for DoD Installations

And then there are projects whose backers couldn't, or wouldn't, limit their verbosity:

• Grid-Interactive Renewable Energy Generation System with DC-Link Battery Storage Integration Capable of Hybrid Microgrid Operation to Increase Energy Security on DoD Installations

Try turning that into an acronym! And finally, technologies that sound like they could double as weapons when not helping improve energy efficiency:

• Kinetic Super-Resolution Long-Wave Infrared Thermography Diagnostic for Building Envelopes

Sounds a little like ARPA-E territory, doesn't it? Though these technologies are closer to being field-able than the world-changing, very high risk / very high reward projects ARPA-E goes after.

See below for links to more DOD energy test bed information and activities:

• The full list and a few more details are HERE
• Installations Energy Test Bed description, HERE, including contact info
• DOD/EPA/DOE Energy Test Bed symposium coming up next week (11/29-12/1) in DC. Link HERE

Scouts Out! New Intel on DOD Smart Grid

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