Eaton Wins Federal Stimulus Grant to Develop Microgrid for U.S. Army
February 14 2011 - 11:07AM
Business Wire
Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation (NYSE:ETN)
today announced that it will receive a $2.4 million federal
stimulus grant to develop a microgrid to help military bases better
manage power and storage while reducing their carbon footprints.
The project is intended to achieve an uninterrupted power supply,
independent of commercial utility power, for critical mission and
support functions on military bases. It will also help to reduce
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
The first year of the 18-month project, administered through the
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction
Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), will focus on research and
development activities at Georgia Tech University, the University
of Wisconsin and Eaton’s Innovation Centers in Pittsburgh and
Milwaukee. Eaton and the university research teams will also
demonstrate how the new system can operate independent of a
civilian grid while balancing the use of solar, wind and natural
gas backup power, and storing energy for future needs. The final
six months of the project will focus on research and development
activities and a demonstration project at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
“Eaton is proud of our selection as the only commercial partner
for this effort to help the Army increase its energy efficiency and
lower its carbon footprint,” said Jerry R. Whitaker, president,
Eaton’s Electrical Sector, Americas Region. “As a global power
management leader, we are well positioned to assist major
government and institutional customers with similar
initiatives.”
The CERL project will apply to civilian and other government
applications and is part of the U.S. Army’s Net-Zero Energy
initiative that promotes the construction and modification of
buildings or installations that create as much energy as they
consume.
According to the 2009 Defense Department Appropriations Act,
U.S. military installations consumed 3.8 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity in 2008, enough to power 350,000 households and spent
$4.1 billion on energy and fuel.
Due to the large energy demands that it faces every year, the
Army has been developing energy strategies for installations that
better reduce costs and increase reliability. The microgrid that
Eaton is creating will extend the smart grid concept to include
important additional functionality such as integration of renewable
resources, optimization of fuel mix, energy storage and system
operation to minimize cost, carbon footprint and system
architecture and control to maximize system reliability and
uptime.
Eaton recently won a contract to supply $8 million in electrical
products and services to support the consolidation of two medical
centers into the new San Antonio Military Medical Center on the
Fort Sam Houston Army base in Texas.
Eaton’s electrical business is a global leader in power
distribution, power quality, control and industrial automation
products and services. Eaton’s global electrical product lines,
including Cutler-Hammer®, Moeller®, Powerware®, Holec®, MEM®,
Santak®, and MGE Office Protection Systems™ provide customer-driven
PowerChain Management® solutions to serve the power system needs of
the data center, industrial, institutional, government, utility,
commercial, residential, and OEM markets worldwide.
Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company with
2010 sales of $13.7 billion. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in
2011, Eaton is a global technology leader in electrical components
and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics
components, systems and services for industrial and mobile
equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for
commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain
and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety.
Eaton has approximately 70,000 employees and sells products to
customers in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit
www.eaton.com.
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