Converge Strategies recently released the report “Powering the Fight: Lessons from the Grid at War,” which looks at the history of grids serving military operations. ADC spoke with Leah Emanuel and Will Rogers from Converge about their report and what communities can learn from it.
ADC: What lessons have the past taught us about grid reliance?
Emanuel: Simply, the power grid is inextricably linked to America’s ability to defend its national interests. You need to look no further than the major wars of the last century — World Wars I and II — to understand this.
The demands of total war strained the power grid to the brink of failing to deliver what the American war machine needed to win the fight. It was the immediacy of wartime energy needs that catalyzed regional power sharing; necessitated the prioritization of defense-critical facilities in the buildout of the grid; and demonstrated that a large-scale, successful transformation of the power grid to serve national defense is possible with proactive coordination between the federal government and the electricity industry.
Today’s power grid is nowhere close to where we need it to be to fight a major war if we had to. If the United States had to fight a major war today, the power grid would immediately be tapped to deliver uninterrupted electricity for critical missions at domestic military installations.
The United States cannot wait for another conflict to drive the kind of coordination we know we need from the federal government and the electricity industry to strengthen the grid. We must strengthen our infrastructure now with defense as a first principle.
ADC: What can industry partners and installations do to ensure effectiveness?
Rogers: Industry partners and installations need to work together now to integrate defense loads into grid planning processes and build redundancies into the critical infrastructure serving defense facilities.
We need to make this process seamless and routine. Prioritizing defense loads when strengthening our electric infrastructure promotes mission readiness by safeguarding our energy-dependent operations and protecting the defense communities that are home to most of our troops, military families, defense civilians, and the defense manufacturers that enable the U.S. military’s decisive overmatch.
Preparing today for forecasted growth in defense loads will better position the U.S. military as well as the utilities that serve defense installations ahead of any potential wartime surge.
ADC: What does Converge Strategies hope installations take away from this report?
Rogers: Military installations and senior mission commanders responsible for them must recognize that the grid is a critical part of the fight. If it’s disrupted, our ability to mobilize and deploy forces as well as conduct operations from the U.S. homeland is at risk of faltering.
We know that the best way to deter an adversary from picking a fight with us is to demonstrate that the systems that enable our defense operations are resilient. That they can take a punch and recover quickly without impacting the mission. That includes the power grid. Strengthening our electric infrastructure for defense is vital, not only to ensure the success of our forces but to deter potential conflict in what some have described as the most dangerous era in global security since World War II.
We need to meet the urgency of the moment with investments that the grid needs. Our national defense depends on it.
