Tech Transfer or Gridlock?
In September 2011, the DOD's
Robyn—who manages and oversees permanent military installations worldwide as well as installation programs that involve energy, the environment, safety, and occupational health—said that her agency is "uniquely positioned to help get some of those [smart and microgrid] technologies commercialized so that we can go on and buy them as another commercial customer and use them in our buildings." Technologies that are demonstrated to be effective for the DOD, she added, are "likely to work for the rest of the country."
In October, Robyn told
Defense News: "The first [step] is for us to be the sophisticated early adopter, and we're really good at doing that. Then the next step is to buy it in large numbers and thereby jumpstart the commercial market. Each of these test-bed projects has a timeline. We give them a finite amount of money. There's typically third-party validation, and we have an estimated return on investment.
"It's not always appropriate to look at a return of investment—for example, if what you're mostly focused on is enhancing the security of the installation."
There should be no question about the importance of more self-reliant, sophisticated, and flexible power grids for the military. However, the trickle-down benefits of DOD smart grid technology pilots for non-military electricity customers—in terms of new technologies and lower prices—may be limited.
To take a small example, the EVs currently being developed for the military are custom builds (as so much is for the military) by a new entrant, which suggests that the likely tech transfer between REV and the dozens of mainstream "legacy" automakers with better consumer brand awareness could be minimal. What could transfer to the civilian grid from V2G pilots is a better understanding of how to handle the distribution-level technical issues involved in using EV-stored energy to provide grid-balancing ancillary services. The regulatory and economic aspects of that transaction would be another matter.
Other energy storage technologies developed for military applications may not translate quickly into civilian life because of cost constraints, whereas the military's primary reason for deploying energy storage is security rather than least cost. Over time, however, we can hope that experience gained in military applications leads to cheaper technologies.
Another limiting factor is that even for technologies that work
technically, working
practically can mean different things in military and civilian contexts. Microgrids, for example, are likely to remain relegated to energy users who put a premium on reliable power supply—including various types of industrial, corporate, and educational campuses.
Though the size of military renewable generation installations is smaller than most utility-scale projects beyond base gates, military microgrid projects may provide valuable lessons about balancing renewable and fossil-fueled generation sources. They could also accelerate greater deployment of distributed renewable generation, something that at least one leading utility CEO, NRG Energy Inc.'s David Crane, already has his eye on. According to an interview with
Yale Environment 360, "The electricity future, says Crane, will be transformed by the widespread adoption of three innovations: solar panels on residential and commercial roofs, electric cars in garages, and truly 'smart meters' that will seamlessly transfer power to and from homes, electric vehicles, and the grid."
One would hope that the civilian electricity sector could also benefit from cybersecurity insights gained through military microgrid endeavors; however, given the number and type of vulnerabilities on the civilian grid, the solutions and standards would likely be somewhat different.
The greatest potential for tech transfer lies in robust microgrids. Mobile microgrids—not unlike those being used at FOBs—could benefit civilian energy users, particularly when they are needed to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and tornados. As for stationary microgrids, the longer the many players pulling the strings of the continental grid delay grid modernization, the stronger the business case becomes for developing even more islanding-capable microgrids.
—Dr. Gail Reitenbach is POWER
's managing editor.
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