The past two decades have seen an increase in the frequency and duration of regional power outages from weather, manmade events, and aging infrastructure. Major disruptions of electric and thermal energy have degraded critical mission capabilities and caused significant economic impacts at military installations. There is a need for a highly resilient “backbone” of energy systems to maintain critical mission and service operations effectively during such extended power outages over a range of emerging scenarios. Department of Defense (DoD) Components now include Installation Energy Plans as integral updates to installation master plans, to be finalized in 2019. The Environmental Security Technology Certification Program Project EW-201240 demonstrated the energy master planning concept and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center-developed automated Net Zero Planner (NZP) Tool at two military installations, and has been used at 40+ military installations since the demonstration. The System Master Planner - Net Zero Planner (SMPL-NZP) Tool helps optimize selection of building, energy generation, and energy distribution technologies for normal operations, but does not specifically address resilience, i.e., an energy system’s ability to provide intended functions when experiencing disruptions. Other NZP deficiencies are its requirement for offline computation of thermal and electrical network characteristics (capacity, losses, and cost) and its need for better visualization of different scenarios to support resilience decisions without significant post-processing. There is an acute need for approaches to energy management and planning that are less vulnerable to disruption, and that can better ensure critical mission capabilities. This project will enhance modeling and analysis capabilities of the existing SMPL-NZP Tool to address Infrastructure Threat and Hazard Damage Analysis, Resilience Node Identification Methodology, Energy Surety Conceptual Designs, and Energy and Installation Resilience and Cost/Benefit Optimization for different scenarios by incorporating enhanced Energy Resilience Analysis (ERA) Tool developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. It will also integrate a capability for computation of thermal (heating and cooling) and electrical network characteristics (capacity, losses, storage, conversion options, and cost), and provide visualization of different scenarios to support resilience decisions without significant post-processing.

Heating and cooling loads often represent most energy requirements for military facilities. The choice between decentralized heating and/or cooling energy supply options for individual buildings, and central options for whole communities, neighborhoods, or building clusters depends largely on local drivers, e.g., energy demand densities, existing networks, building systems configurations, etc. The selection can also depend on critical operations/mission assurance needs. As a result, the feasibility of scenarios must be evaluated holistically, considering both economic factors and energy assurance optimization. This project will combine the analysis of micro- and district-energy grid technologies with modeling and analytical tools to improve planning and design approaches that enhance installation and community resilience to energy disruption, and that better ensure mission capabilities and critical services during extended energy outages. This project will develop a calculation module to model thermal and electrical network characteristics (capacity, losses, cost, and resilience) and to perform system optimizations, including energy security and resilience aspects. This standalone module will have standardized input/output for use with existing community planning tools, including the SMPL-NZP Tool and the modified ERA tool that allows the user to predict the amount of unserved energy for the critical energy loads identified for the military installation area under consideration.

This project will support the implementation of the March 31, 2016 Office of the Secretary of Defense Memorandum on Installation Energy Plans, and Installation Resilience Programs by developing a database of energy supply scenarios with their limitations and economic analysis, and by supporting end users in establishing well defined boundary conditions required to select optimum mission support scenarios. The project will also establish guidelines for installation and community managers to assess and implement cost-effective micro- and district-energy grid improvements to enhance installation and community energy security, resilience, and regional sustainability, while also improving overall critical mission assurance efficiently and cost effectively for emerging threats – both natural and manmade.