Exterior of MCAS Miramar’s microgrid room in San Diego, California.
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Exterior of MCAS Miramar Microgrid Rooms in San Diego, California.
Alan Nakkash for NPR
SAN DIEGOS — After just one day in command of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Col. Thomas Bedell received a message from base energy director. The city power system was straining under a heatwave, and it was time to start up the microgrid.
“So I said, yes! Start the microgrid. Bedell recalled with a laugh. Bedell laughed as he recalled the incident. “
Safety equipment at MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California.
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Safety equipment at MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California.
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Detail of a diesel engine at MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California.
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Detail of diesel engine at MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California.
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Or, as Col. Bedell says, aircraft carrier mode. Col. Bedell calls it aircraft carrier mode. When you consider the installation in terms of an aircraft carrier, the need for redundant power, energy resilience, water and food resilience, becomes obvious.
Thomas M. Bedell (US Marine Corps), the commanding officer at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and the Energy and Water Operations Center, pose for a picture.
Lance Cpl. Jose S. GuerreroDeLeon/U.S. Marines/DVIDS
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Lance Cpl. Jose S. GuerreroDeLeon/U.S. Marines/DVIDS
U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas M. Bedell poses for a picture at the Energy and Water Operations Center of MCAS Miramar.
Lance Cpl. Jose S. GuerreroDeLeon/U.S. Marines/DVIDS
It’s not surprising that the Pentagon has made it a goal to make all bases “power resilient.” It’s often best to use a local renewable energy source to build resilience. This is in line with the Pentagon goal of making all bases carbon neutral by 2050. This will allow key defense capabilities to remain intact in case of a terrorist attack on the U.S. electricity grid or, more likely, an extreme weather event as climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and storms.
Right: Diesel engine in the engine room at MCAS Miramar. Right: Diesel engine at MCAS Miramar.
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The rebuild will include a microgrid built for the base by the local utility. The rebuild is incorporating a microgrid built for the base by the local utility.
“Florida Power & Light provides us the ability to ‘island’ that critical headquarters building and its functions from the rest of the installation, should there be a power loss,” says Mike Dwyer, deputy chief of the Air Force Natural Disaster Recovery Division.Getting industry partners involved made funding and building the microgrid faster than the Pentagon’s normally glacial procurement process. Dwyer says that the base’s critical defense operations will continue to run during the next storm.
“It is designed to run the first Air Force building or the Air Force’s North Headquarters completely independently for up four and a quarter hours,” said Dwyer. Dwyer said Tyndall is still at least 3 to 5 years away from having a grid that could run the whole base.
A diesel engine at MCAS Miramar.
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A diesel engine at MCAS Miramar.
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Detail of diesel engine MCAS Miramar
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Detail of diesel engine at MCAS Miramar.
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The DoD is among the world’s
largest emitters of carbon dioxide, so it’s exciting to see them take an interest in renewables, said Lisa Cohn with the site Microgrid Knowledge.
“The military’s interest in microgrids is really, really important — because the military does tend to deploy new technologies before anyone else,” she said.
The progress is mostly driven by the fact that it makes tactical sense. It can save soldiers’ lives in war. He was a Marine Artilleryman during 2003. He recalls running out of fuel while rushing from Kuwait to Iraq. He said that we outran our logisticians and had to pause on the side of a road for four days so our logistics could catch-up. Newell spoke with NPR for the first time in 2011 while setting up renewable energy at a Marine Corps outpost in Helmand.
Detail of diesel engine MCAS Miramar
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Newell said that the troops are not concerned about whether it is a carbon-neutral option, as long as they can fight and survive. Resupply convoys that were hit by roadside explosions in Afghanistan accounted for a large portion of the U.S. military’s casualties. He said that “we have these distributed forces who are constantly in need of bullets, band-aids, fuel, and food,” making them even more vulnerable. “
Newell, a retired colonel and entrepreneur, has started a business that promotes mobile combat energy solutions. He believes these will be more important for the next war. He spent his final years in the Marine Corps working to set up the microgrid on Miramar Air Base. Miramar also shows how military microgrids can improve the resilience of the civilian power grid. Col. Bedell says that it can be used as a headquarters for state officials or FEMA during heatwaves or storms.
Exterior of MCAS Miramar’s microgrid room in San Diego, California.
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Exterior of MCAS Miramar Microgrid Rooms in San Diego, California.
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He said that it makes sense for all states to have disaster-resilient power grids at military bases. Miramar, too, has helped. In 2022, during a heatwave, the California energy grid experienced its highest load ever. Bedell received a text message from San Diego Gas & Electric, asking if Miramar would be willing to turn off the city’s power for 10 consecutive days to help reduce the load. Bedell said that this prevented about 3,000 households from experiencing a potential blackout. Bedell said that while the military tends focus on using microgrids for tactical threats, climate change is also a threat. If we negatively impact the climate change causing social disruption, then that’s not us working ourselves out of our job. “That’s the problem we want to solve,” said he.