What is a military microgrid?

Microgrids are systems that can increase the resilience of military facilities to provide power during interruptions by providing multiple redundant local power sources and infrastructure independent of the larger electric utility.

How can a military microgrid improve energy security?

Guidance documents for energy security of military microgrids attempt to optimize microgrid design through maximizing the reliability of meeting critical loads given a fixed investment or by targeting a specific reliability value and minimizing a life cycle cost objective function with reliability as a constraint [9, 31, 32].

What is the difference between a microgrid and a SMR?

First, by definition, a microgrid is a discrete system that provides power locally. An SMR acts as an “island of power,” which decouples from the larger grid and from other military installations, so a successful attack on one installation would be an isolated incident and not a systemic failure.

Can military microgrids be resilient?

The paper presents a systems engineering modeling and analysis method to design military microgrids resilience in the face of disruptions and equipment failures. The method focuses on minimizing mission impact due to threats to energy security and can be applied in the early design phase of a microgrid when only architectural data are available.

Do military electric power supply need a microgrid?

Military electric power supply, both strategic and tactical, must adapt to this reality and plan for increased future use of microgrids within a generation in the name of mission assurance.

Are microgrids a threat to the military?

While the military tends to focus on the use of microgrids against tactical threats, Bedell says climate change itself is also one of those threats. "We need to be part of this solution. And if we are negatively impacting the climate change that is causing societal disruption, that's not working ourselves out of a job.