FORT DETRICK, Md. - A delegation from the Singapore Armed Forces began their week in the D.C. area by visiting Fort Detrick’s Area B to learn about its BESS (Battery Energy Storage System), Feb. 24.
ME7 (Col.) Sreekanth Shankar, Head of Joint Logs and Deputy Chief for the SAF Sustainability Office, led the delegation of seven from Singapore, and was accompanied by Noah Garfinkle, Director for Environmental Security, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health).
“The delegation was enthusiastic about all they learned, and it perfectly set the stage for a week of diplomacy,” said Garfinkle.
Battery Energy Storage Systems are devices that store electricity from renewable sources, in this case from the solar farm on Area B. They can then release this energy when needed, reducing costs and helping to stabilize the electrical grid for Fort Detrick, which is home to some of the Army’s most important communications and medical research commands.
The 6 MW/6MWh BESS integrates seamlessly with the existing 18.6 MW (DC) solar energy facility here, which has been operational since 2016. This integration not only boosts the facility’s capacity by providing frequency regulation services to the local electric grid, but also enhances the overall energy security and sustainability of the installation by improving the power quality and correcting unintended fluctuations in generation.
The technology is considered innovative, but is also viewed as steppingstone toward future developments, including potential integration into a micro-grid system that could provide further essential backup power and support the Army’s mission-critical operations during potential outages.
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