Research Summaries

Back COTS Microgrids for Sustainable Energy Integration and Resiliency

Fiscal Year 2021
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Naylor, Brandon L.
Howard, Alan R.
Sponsor Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (Navy)
Summary This research project will demonstrate the viability of using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) renewable energy and power distribution technologies to provide sustainable and uninterrupted energy at Coast Guard and Navy coastal facilities. This project will evaluate the potential applications of a transportable microgrid system with renewable generation and energy storage that can act as either a standalone energy source or grid-tied backup power supply using technologies developed for residential and commercial energy generation, backup supply, and off-grid applications. The ideal microgrid will generate energy from solar, wind, and/or wave energy sources, depending on which energy sources are most practical at the designated testing facilities. NSAM and the Monterey Coast Guard pier among others will be considered as representative use case environments. This effort will produce a "cookbook" for creating suitable microgrids at coastal facilities and a guide to practical considerations when implementing similar microgrid systems based on the research team's past experimental microgrid work. The final deliverables will also include an analysis on the expected life cycle costs of the system and how it compares to more conventional backup power systems, and what benefits or drawbacks are realized from using COTS components instead of energy and power components designed specifically for military applications. This effort will also include a legal analysis of the policies, mandates, and doctrine that guide the implementation of sustainable energy at coast facilities and their relevance to further deployment of these microgrid designs.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal