Military Microgrids

HSGS-Ameresco Installing On-Site Backup Power at Military Ocean Terminal Concord

Nov. 30, 2023

The on-site generation at the MOTCO facility will include three generators, a 2-MW load bank, 1,200-amp switchgear and 72,000 gallons of fuel storage capacity. The tanks are designed to provide 14 days of fuel.

Rod Walton, Managing Editor

A joint venture unit of renewable energy developer Ameresco has been contracted to build a 6.25-MW backup power plant and underground transmission lines on-site at the Military Ocean Terminal Concord (MOTCO) in California.

The HSGS-Ameresco joint venture will oversee the project, which also involves installation of approximately 12,000 linear feet of underground duct bank with power distribution conductors. The project will be integrated with the existing electrical infrastructure at the Military Ocean Terminal, which is interconnected to the Pacific Gas & Electric utility grid.

“We’re thrilled to be selected to construct and enhance the reliability of MOTCO’s energy infrastructure,” Dave McNeil, president and CEO of HSGS-Ameresco, said in a statement. “We take great pride in providing the right and needed measures to supply energy resilience for this important military facility.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in January and completed by early 2026.

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Military Ocean Terminals are operated by the U.S. Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command for moving cargo from storage and repair depots to military forward-based units. Military Ocean Terminal Concord is located on the shore of the Sacramento River near where it widens into the Suisun Bay tidal estuary. It originated as a World War II storage depot supplying ships at Port Chicago on the southern end of the estuary.

HSGS-Ameresco was formed as a joint venture of Massachusetts-based Ameresco and Hannah Solar Government Services. The project is funded through the U.S. Department of Defense’s Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program.

Ameresco is owner, operator or co-developer of numerous military microgrid projects across the U.S. Among these are the microgrid at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, California, and a joint venture floating solar microgrid at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

About the Author

Rod Walton, Managing Editor | Managing Editor

For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.

I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.

Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.