Hacker, Terrorist Threats Spur Bases to Build Power Grids

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Military Worries About Facilities Being Linked to Vulnerable Utility Companies

Roof panels are outfitted with solar panels that help to power the sprawling Marine Corps combat center in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Stuart Palley for The Wall Street Journal

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif.—Fear that utility companies remain vulnerable to hackers, terrorists and natural disasters has the Pentagon pushing construction of independent power grids at military bases across the U.S., including one nearing completion here at the Marine Corps combat center.

The base at Twentynine Palms, home to about 22,000 people and spread across 1,100 square miles of the Mojave Desert, still buys power from Southern California Edison. But soon it will be able to operate even if there is a blackout, using a system of small power plants, solar panels, batteries and diesel generators. It already is saving $10 million a year in energy costs.

Dozens of U.S. bases are marching in the same direction as they try to keep up with the growing power demands of a modern military. “A lot of bases want what we’ve got,” said Gary Morrissett, the energy manager at Twentynine Palms.

The U.S. military needs an uninterrupted flow of electricity to support operations at home and around the globe, officials said. Drones in Afghanistan, for example, have been piloted from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Diesel-run generators that provide backup power can’t do the job alone, given the electricity demands of the high-tech era.

“When I was a major in the first Gulf War, we went over there without computers or email,” said Greg Bean, a retired Army colonel who works as director of public works at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, one of the Army’s biggest bases. “Now, if you lose a server, your operations almost cease.”

Worries about electricity went up a notch last year when assailants disabled an electrical substation in California by shooting at 17 transformers that help power Silicon Valley. The unsolved attack “made us think about our dependence, and how we position ourselves to reduce that risk,” said Capt. Alex Stites of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy.

Increasingly, the Pentagon wants power from its own sources. Solar panels, for example, have become almost as common on bases as flagpoles. Photovoltaic panels provide nearly a quarter of the electricity at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. The panels already save the base about $1 million a year, said Jeffrey Blazi, base energy manager, and a proposed expansion would double the output.

Fort Bragg is building a microgrid similar to the one at Twentynine Palms. On a typical day, Fort Bragg makes about half the power it needs. It is narrowing the gap by trimming consumption. For example, the base replaced electric dryers for parachutes with a “solar wall” that absorbs the sun’s heat and funnels hot air up a tall silo to dry hanging parachutes.

“The endgame is to be able to survive if the grid goes down,” said Paul Orzeske, who recently retired as president of Honeywell Building Solutions, the company helping build Fort Bragg’s microgrid.

For years, experts have recommended the U.S. military seek independence from commercial utilities. “Our grid is old and it’s reliant on technology that’s outdated,” said Michael Wu, energy program director for the Truman National Security Project & Center for National Policy, a Washington think tank.

A 2008 report from the Defense Science Board, a panel that advises the Pentagon, said faith in the electric grid was misplaced. The report, titled “More Fight — Less Fuel,” said it was unwise to assume that commercial power was reliable and that the backup systems on U.S. bases were adequate.

Of particular concern, the report said, was the U.S. electrical system’s reliance on large transformers—usually housed at remote electrical substations—which send electricity across long distances. “Largely unprotected,” the report said, “they can be easily targeted and destroyed,” leading to blackouts that could last months or years. Widely read, the report pushed the discussion of electricity into a matter of national security.

Base Energy Manager Gary Morrissett inside the control room of a cogeneration station at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. STUART PALLEY

More recently, the Navy warned it is worried about the grid’s vulnerabilities and said “we cannot rely primarily on an aging and increasingly stressed transmission grid to deliver mission-critical power.”

At Twentynine Palms, base officials started worrying about power supplies during the California energy crisis that triggered rolling blackouts 14 years ago. Diesel generators provided the only emergency power at the time.

At first, the base added a small generating plant, followed by solar panels and batteries. This summer, it finished construction of a second generating plant that makes electricity and chills water, which cools buildings in a desert climate that often tops 90 degrees.

Technicians monitor equipment settings and temperatures in buildings with gear from Johnson Controls Inc., reducing complaints about hot rooms. Motion sensors and high-efficiency lighting cut electricity consumption.

Engineers estimate they will soon be able to generate about 80% of the electricity the base needs.

As the military gains more experience, and as retrofitting costs drop, the pace of development will pick up, said Dennis McGinn, assistant secretary of the Navy and a retired vice admiral.

More than money is at stake, he said: “Mission readiness is tied to energy security.”

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