USMC Look to Micro-Grid - Help Offset Hike F-35 Energy Costs

[spazsinbad]

Marine Corps Officials Look to Micro-Grid to Help Offset Hike in F-35 Energy Costs [Loooooonnnnnng Post]
07 Dec 2018 GIDGET FUENTES

"SAN DIEGO — The F-35 Lightning II jet will hike Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar’s utility costs by 150 percent compared to legacy F/A-18 Hornets, an expense driven by greater power requirements to maintain and operate the highly complex, fifth-generation aircraft, a senior official told a group of energy officials.

But an expanding micro-grid and alternative energy projects could take a bite out of that bigger bill when the F-35 comes online by 2020, Col. Charles B. Dockery, the MCAS Miramar commander, said at a briefing Dec 3.

“We know already our F-35 hangars are burning about 150 percent more energy than the standard Hornet or Harrier hangar that I grew up in, so that’s a concern,” he told California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission members who joined state, city and energy firm representatives for a two-day conference at the San Diego base.

Existing, older hangars can’t fully support the modern, multi-mission joint strike fighter, which requires hangars with upgraded electrical support. The Marine Corps is in the process of retrofitting, building or planning for hangars to support the F-35 at its fixed-wing air stations, including Yuma MCAS, Arizona, and Beaufort MCAS, South Carolina, that house the first F-35 operational and fleet replacement squadrons....

...“There’s infrastructure that is required to do some specific maintenance on the lift fan of the aircraft or [that] it requires conditioned air as part of that process,” Dockery said, in response to a question about the F-35’s increased power support requirement. “This is a story that’s going on across the Navy as we try and rise to this new global power competition,” said John A. Kliem, a retired captain and civil engineer and executive director of the Navy’s Resilient Energy Program Office.

Miramar’s first F-35 hangar is currently under construction and is slated for completion in late 2019. It’s one of nine construction projects planned at the air station to support the F-35....

…The first F-35C and F-35B jets are scheduled to arrive at Miramar starting in 2020, with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 transitioning from the F/A-18 Hornet to the F-35C and VMFA-225 from its twin-seat F/A-18D Hornets to the F-35B, according to the 2018 Marine Aviation Plan...."

Source: http://seapowermagazine.org/stories/20181207-grid.html

[aussiebloke]

Existing, older hangars can’t fully support the modern, multi-mission joint strike fighter, which requires hangars with upgraded electrical support.

Some more detail on the hangar requirements for supporting the F-35:

in each F-35 hangar work is done above service pits—under-floor spaces from which electric power, cooling and other services are provided at the aircraft, obviating the need to run cables from remote inverters/converters.

Cooling is another issue. The F-35’s multiple electronic systems generate significant heat. During maintenance, the fighter requires preconditioned air (PCA) cooling at just the right temperature. The air must be very dry at a higher pressure than standard commercial PCA. Sending cool air from specialized high-pressure air conditioners through an underground trunk line which is ducted off to individual service pits is one way to ensure proper cooling.

https://www.mro-network.com/maintenance ... rent-needs

[scudbuster]

Work started this week to provide F-35 Infrastructure at RAF Lakenheath.

[marsavian]

https://www.forces.net/news/demolition- ... ival-f-35s

[spazsinbad]

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