In order to save its burgeoning costs of electricity, the US army is planning to install microgrids in Afghanistan. It will not only save money, but also reduce pollution in the war torn country. For testing the efficiency of new mechanism, a three month trial will be done in the area first. During the testing phase, these microgrids will supply electricity to day to day operations like kitchen and laundry services.
As of now, the army uses diesel generators in Afghanistan for running its bases. This becomes an expensive affair for army for several reasons. First and foremost is skyrocketing price of fuel and secondly the running costs are high since the soldiers don’t get to cut the power supply when it is not being used, hence the fuel consumption goes quite high. Added to that is the fact that during transportation of fuel, the convoys become major prey from terrorists and other activists. They blast them very often, making it difficult for the army to bring down costs.
Based on its experiences, the army this time has designed such microgrids which will help in every possible way to cut on costs. These microgrids will be connected to diesel generators which will be able to ‘interact’ with each other in order to supply only required amount of power, thus saving on wasted electricity. Each microgrid will be connected to four generators which will be collectively able to produce one megawatt. This huge production will also enable army to cut existent small units drastically, thus reducing the maintenance and running costs also.
The microgriods are designed in such a way that they will include controls to integrate renewable energy generation in the form of solar and wind power. The purpose behind this move is to create modular systems in future, which will use energy from different sources like wind, solar energy etc and with on site engineering mechanisms. The new microgrid system will be soon deployed after successful completion of trial phase and will be rapidly expanded to entire area. It is hoped that the new system, once deployed in the entire area and fully functional, replacing the existing system, will not only cut on costs but will also make entire mechanism hassle free for the soldiers and technical team.
Via: CNet
