Military Microgrids

Defense Department Office Elevates Microgrid Developer Enchanted Rock's Gen-sets as "Awardable" for Digital & AI Marketplace

July 1, 2024

Military microgrids are a growing sub-sector in project development. In the past year, the U.S. Army, New York Air National Guard, Air Force, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Marines have approved, started work or completed microgrid and on-site renewable energy projects.

Rod Walton, Managing Editor

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace has decreed “Awardable” status to microgrid gen-set provider Enchanted Rock.

The status allows Enchanted Rock’s technologies to be included in the marketplace venue for Department of Defense (D0D) organizations considering on-site projects and solutions in the data, analytics, digital and artificial intelligence/machine learning categories. The company typically deploys generator-set for microgrids utilizing natural gas and renewable natural gas fuels.

Military microgrids are a growing sub-sector in the industry. In the past year, the U.S. Army, New York Air National Guard, Air Force, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Marines have approved, started work or completed microgrid and on-site renewable energy projects.

“Military and defense installations demand constant energy to maintain mission readiness, yet they rely on an aging, vulnerable utility grid that faces the ongoing risk of power outages caused by a range of mechanical, operational and human-related hazards,” Allan Schurr, chief commercial officer for Enchanted Rock, said in a statement.

“Protection against power outage risks requires a well-maintained, local generating source that starts quickly to provide utility-grade power for base operations for the duration of the outage,” Schurr pointed out..

Texas-based Enchanted Rock has delivered on-site power and microgrid installations for municipal water infrastructure, data centers and health care facilities, among others.

Enchanted Rock offers engineering, installation, operations and maintenance services with projects. The categories or tiers named in the DoD’s Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace include the utility partner model, where the utility owns and operates the asset; integrated resiliency on call, where Enchanted Rock owns and operates the microgrid; Energy Savings Performance Contracts; and System Sale, in which the customer owns the assets and receives grid services revenues while the developer manages the market services.

Grid services are taking an increasing role in the value chain case for aggregated distributed energy resources such as microgrids. These can include peak demand response, inertia support, voltage control, virtual power plants and other ancillary services.

Solutions which were elevated into the DoD’s Tradewinds Marketplace were assessed and vetted through competitive procedures and competition requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, and statutes, policies and guidance of the Defense Department’s other transaction authorities

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.