Optimization of microgrids at military remote base camps
Kevin E. Garcia · Calhoun: The Naval Postgraduate School Institutional Archive (Naval Postgraduate School) · 2017
Energy savings both on the battlefield and at home are a high priority for the U.S. military. We present two mixed integer linear programs developed for a microgrid providing electrical power to a remote U.S. contingency base. The first program minimizes the total cost of electricity production and the second program minimizes the fuel consumption through the scheduling of generators, energy storage systems, and alternative energy production. Using the U.S. Army's Base Camp Systems Integration Laboratory as our baseline setup, we ran several different simulated microgrid scenarios through the model to determine possible fuel savings. The results showed varying levels of energy savings depending on the tested scenario. Installing different size generators instead of identical size generators produced fuel savings. Adding a battery storage system also increased the fuel savings. Finally, a photovoltaic solar array was evaluated in the microgrid and we found that it produced significant fuel savings.