For military bases, access to secure and reliable energy is mission critical. A sudden power outage can jeopardize radar systems, air traffic control, and vital operations tied directly to national security. Many bases especially those in rural communities rely on local energy grids, and those grids could be vulnerable to damage from extreme weather, natural disasters, or equipment failures.
To address these risks, the Department of Energy's (DOE's) national laboratories teamed up with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) to enhance energy resilience at a domestic military base.
Recently, researchers from DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) worked with a rural electric cooperative that serves Ellsworth Air Force Base to install a 277-kilowatt-hour battery energy storage system (BESS). With the new 13,000-pound lithium-ion battery system, the South Dakota air force base will have a safe and reliable backup energy source to support a mission-critical system. The BESS doesn't just benefit the air force base, either the nearby Rapid City Regional Airport will also have access to the stored energy in an emergency.
"This project helped reduce the barriers to entry for other rural electric utilities to deploy lithium-ion batteries by documenting safety and siting considerations around battery energy storage," said Lauren Khair, senior director of energy research and resilience of NRECA. "The expertise that the national labs brought to the project was invaluable."
The PNNL team worked with Sandia National Laboratories, NRECA, West River Electric Association (WREA), the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and industry partners. The project was part of the Rural Energy Storage Deployment Program, funded by the DOE's Office of Electricity and managed in collaboration with NRECA Research. The Rural Energy Storage Deployment Program provided the framework and technical support to enable the development and deployment of the BESS.
