Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Monterey Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) co-hosted a three-day virtual electric utility training academy for armed forces personnel looking to expand their understanding of microgrids.
The Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and other federal, state and local agencies are working towards U.S. energy self-sufficiency by constructing microgrids and other renewable power energy sources across military installations.
In an effort to further the understanding of renewable power energy via microgrids, NAVFAC EXWC enlisted electric utility professionals from ONR and NPS to co-host 12 classes within three half-day sessions. 46 participants from across all armed forces—U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force—attended the debut Microgrid Academy.
For background, a microgrid is a self-sufficient energy grid with controlled capability—meaning it can disconnect from a traditional electric grid and operate autonomously. Microgrids are important for a variety of reasons, namely because if a first power source from an electrical grid fails, a microgrid can break off and operate on its own, using local stored energy and generation in times of crisis—for example storms or power outages. Microgrids not only provide a backup energy source in case of emergencies, but can also reduce costs, and offer a solution for communities to be more energy self-sufficient and, in some cases, more environmentally friendly.
Microgrid Academy presentations consisted of several electric utility topics, including SKM electric distribution, ARC analysis and modeling, XENDEE modeling, Navy microgrid case studies from NAVFAC EXWC and NPS, resilience in the DOD as it pertains to energy sufficiency, base utility responsibilities, doctoral thesis excerpts, and an overview of the Electric Power Research Institute microgrid development.
Of the presentations, the XENDEE modeling platform sparked great interest for participants. In laments terms, the XENDEE modeling platform allows users to begin microgrid modeling by defining detailed scenarios regarding their unique energy utility program(s). The modeling platform dissects these scenarios, and returns a comprehensive overview of data for electric utility engineers. For military and civilian personnel who have used the XENDEE modeling platform, it has proven to be an imperative tool—especially at Naval Station Rota.
“XENDEE modeling is an additional tool in a decision maker’s toolbox that can quickly and succinctly pull massive amounts of data, organize it, and allow for various modeling scenarios to be played out,” said Bryan Long, NAVFAC Utilities and Energy Manager Branch Head. “Naval Station Rota—who are already using the XENDEE model—surprised UEM leadership with the results from XENDEE modeling; at first, the results may not have seemed like the way forward, but after allowing the model to optimize a solution, the results were positively astounding.”
Long added that in the end, using the XENDEE model helped bring the NAVFAC EXWC UEM organization to make better strategic decisions that were both cost-effective and technologically evolved.
“The Microgrid Academy expertise from its instructors was extremely well-received by DOD students,” said Robert Nordahl, NAVFAC EXWC Microgrid Power Systems Team Lead. “NPS was a significant help in bringing the Microgrid Academy to fruition! We also had students and instructors in several continents. Moving forward, as the Microgrid Academy continues to expand, so will our ability to meet the microgrid educational needs of both military and civilians, whether they are CONUS or OCONUS.”
The Microgrid Academy plans to host ten Microgrid Academy students towards the end of January 2021 for hands-on microgrid instruction. This instruction has been in high-demand from Microgrid Academy participants, indicating the increase need to continue the Microgrid Academy on a more regular, quarterly basis.
For more information on the Microgrid Academy, please contact Robert Nordahl at robert.nordahl@navy.mil.
About Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC):
NAVFAC EXWC is a command of more than 1,300 dedicated federal employees, contractors, and military personnel who provide science, research, development, testing, evaluation, specialized engineering, and mobile logistics capabilities to deliver sustainable facility and pragmatic expeditionary solutions to the warfighter.
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For more news from NAVFAC EXWC, please visit https://www.navfac.navy.mil/ or visit us on Facebook @NAVFACEXWC
| Date Taken: | 11.24.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.24.2020 10:28 |
| Story ID: | 383659 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 252 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Microgrid Experts Host First Electric Utility Training Academy for Armed Forces, by Sarah Lincoln, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
