Construction on a 12-MW natural gas-powered microgrid is nearing completion at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) expects to turn the installation over to the garrison in December.
To ensure mission-critical facilities remain operational during an outage or emergency, the U.S. Army announced in 2022 its plan to install microgrids at each of its 130 bases worldwide by 2035. The USACE broke ground on the Fort Campbell facility in October 2023.
The microgrid will allow the garrison to maintain 100% mission capability for up to two weeks in the event of a grid failure.
“The Fort Campbell microgrid project is key to the installation achieving resilience by allowing operations of critical missions when faced with adverse situations,” said Rachael Haunz, branch chief, Support for Others, Planning, Programs, and Project Management Division, USACE Louisville District.
One of the final steps before the ASCE turns the microgrid over will be to conduct a “black start” test to ensure the microgrid can independently restart the garrison’s energy system from a completely de-energized, or blackout, state.
The garrison, located on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, is home to the Screaming Eagles of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), the 5th Special Forces Group and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
Military microgrids not immune to interconnection challenges
Like other distributed energy and microgrid projects, the Fort Campbell installation had to overcome interconnection challenges.
“The biggest challenge has been the coordination and interconnection piece,” Jack Oakley, USACE Louisville District project manager, said. “My job was to make sure communication between all entities continued throughout the construction phase. Without getting everyone in the room together, we would not have been as efficient in coordinating our efforts.”
“A strong partnership between the installation, utility provider, USACE, and contractors was key in overcoming challenges and paves the way for future microgrid projects,” Haunz added.
U.S. military goes all in on microgrids
The Army has installed microgrids at Fort Hunter Liggett, Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood), among others. It is also testing mobile microgrid systems designed to power field hospitals and testing microgrid related projects at installations including West Point, White Sands Missile Range and Fort-Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Other branches of the military have made similar commitments to leverage microgrids for base resilience. Microgrids have been installed or are under construction at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, New Mexico’s Kirtland Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam, Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut and Yakota Air Base in Japan.
About the Author
Kathy Hitchens
Special Projects Editor
I work as a writer and special projects editor for Microgrid Knowledge. I have over 30 years of writing experience, working with a variety of companies in the renewable energy, electric vehicle and utility sector, as well as those in the entertainment, education, and financial industries. I have a BFA in Media Arts from the University of Arizona and a MBA from the University of Denver.