By Eric Lindeman
With the goal of improving the fuel efficiency and lowering the cost of its Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources (BEAR), the Air Force last week awarded a $3.5 million contract to Lockheed Martin [LMT] and SkyBuilt Power, a renewable energy product integration company for rapidly deployable power, to develop an Integrated Smart-BEAR Power System (ISBPS).
The Air Force’s BEAR program equips U.S. forces with the lightweight, air-transportable components that are used to set up mobile air bases. The proposed ISBPS will be an “intelligent” system that integrates renewable–wind and solar–with conventional energy sources–mostly diesel fuel–to power a BEAR grid. And the Air Force wants ISBPS to reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent, while easing logistical difficulties and improving power reliability.
A typical expeditionary air base includes housing, operations and support facilities, said Gil Metzger, director for Intelligent Microgrid Solutions at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. ISBPS will be designed to support the electricity requirements of such modular bases, which can be used by thousands of personnel.
“Renewable energy sources can save lives and money by reducing the amount of fuel transported in theater,” Metzger said in a May 6 announcement of the deal. “Our transportable intelligent power system will integrate renewable and conventional power, a challenging task in deployed environments. This important capability will increase safety and add new mission-extending capability for our troops.”
ISBPS can be used on an existing BEAR grid, or independently as backup when the grid is unavailable. BEAR modular power capacity starts at 100 kilowatts and can go up to 10 megawatts, depending on requirements at a particular forward operating location.
The system will be designed and integrated with BEAR to independently sustain critical power loads when necessary or to supplement conventional diesel generation with solar and wind power. The system is also designed for rapid deployment and will fit in standard shipping containers.
SkyBuilt, a small firm that has pioneered deployable power systems, has “substantial expertise that we can bring to bear on this,” said Dave Muchow, president and CEO, “and Lockheed Martin is used to dealing with very complex systems for all sorts of areas in the military.”
Although by DoD standards, the dollar value of the ISBPS contract is relatively small, Muchow told Defense Daily it is “a large-scale, very interesting project for us.” SkyBuilt, he added, “invented the first rapidly deployable, solar-wind hybrid power stations, and we hold a lot intellectual proprerty in this area. Our technologies have been deployed for years in the field.”
One of those field-tested technologies, SkyStation, also called the Mobile Power Station, is composed of rugged, commercial-off-the-shelf components. The company describes it as a user-friendly, plug-and-play hybrid power system, transported in standard ISO or other containers. The patented system is designed to provide reliable power in harsh environments, and the container itself is customized to provide a durable, climate-controlled shelter for communications, computing, or surveillance equipment, while also protecting and extending the life of the electrical system components of the power plant, which include a battery bank, charge controllers and inverters.
Lockhead Martin said that before deployment, ISBPS will be developed and demonstrated at its Dallas site to exploit the resources of the company’s Microgrid Development Center- -a facility that provides comprehensive power system modeling, simulation and physical testing at a single location. Lockheed Martin also stressed that the ISBPS team will build and use actual BEAR structures during the testing phase in Dallas.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman said the contract is for ISBPS development only and that after the work is completed, the Air Force will have to evaluate the technology and decide on the next step. He added that Lockheed Martin could produce the systems for the Air Force, if the service so decided. The cost to build a production model ISBPS “will depend on how many are purchased and the timeframe,” he said. “It’s too early to talk about individual unit costs.”