EEI signs agreement with Army to explore best practices in energy resilience at Army installations

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) signed an agreement this week with the U.S. Army to explore best practices for energy resilience planning across Army installations.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) – signed by Rachel Jacobson, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment (ASA IE&E), and Tom Kuhn, president of EEI – establishes a framework for collaboration and information sharing on energy security and resilience strategies.

“A secure supply of resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy is critical for Army to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars,” Jacobson said. “The new MOU with EEI is an exciting opportunity to reinforce existing relationships between Army and its serving electric companies, and build the resilient, efficient, and sustainable grid of tomorrow.”

The ASA IE&E is engaging with the electric companies serving Army installations to facilitate information sharing on electric company infrastructure vulnerabilities and planned investments that could potentially impact Army installations and mission operations. The MOU lays the foundation to identify, develop, and implement best practices to ensure a secure and reliable energy supply for military installations, as well as the broader community.

“EEI and our member electric companies are proud to continue working with the Army to identify new opportunities to enhance energy resilience at its installations,” Kuhn said. “The information sharing and joint exercises made possible by this MOU will ensure that the industry can help meet the unique resilience and sustainability needs for each location.”

EEI and the Army originally signed an MOU in 2021 for a one-year pilot program that enabled joint energy resilience planning across the Army enterprise. In this previous agreement, EEI facilitated planning exercises between installations and electric companies in places like Fort Belvoir, Va., with Dominion Energy; Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, N.M., with El Paso Electric; Fort Huachuca, Ariz., with Tucson Electric Power, and U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii with Hawaiian Electric.

These exercises led to the identification of shared vulnerabilities, communications gaps, and opportunities to improve coordination with electric companies during grid emergencies.