DALLAS, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been tasked to develop a Hybrid Intelligent Power microgrid system to reduce energy and fossil fuel use at U.S. Army field bases.
The award from the U.S. Army Communications -- Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center is worth $3.5 million. It contains an additional $1.4 million exercisable option to demonstrate the system as a battalion-sized tactical operations center microgrid by 2012.
The Army aims to reduce energy consumption and fossil fuel usage at its transportation and deployment field installations by as much as 40 percent.
"Intelligent microgrids reduce the volume and weight of deployable base camps, resulting in a reduction in transportation and operating costs, as well as a 40 percent decrease in fuel consumption," said Gil Metzger, director of Force Projection and Power Management Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "By efficiently and dependably supplying power to tactical operations, fewer soldiers are placed in harm's way during the transportation and daily operation of the base."
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Lockheed Martin said HI Power will integrate a network of cables that connect energy generators, energy storage devices and other equipment to a central control location. The control location determines the amount of energy required to power operations, then distributes or conserves power based upon the current need.
A key component of the HI Power program is the ability to smartly distribute power from generators to outlets and throughout the power grid, the company said.
Supplied by Ideal Power Converters, Inc., converters eliminate the possibility of a single point of failure by managing power at multiple points in the microgrid in addition to the central controller. Distributed and central controllers continuously share information to ensure an efficient supply of power flows throughout the grid.
"The HI Power system is easily scalable from 15 kilowatts to more than 500 kilowatts," Metzger said. "That is enough to power a base supporting hundreds of soldiers to one supporting thousands."
