Keeping the Power On

The Air Force hasn’t focused enough on energy assurance, and it is trying to “do more, do better” in Fiscal 2017, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee on Wednesday. USAF officials have directed the stand up of an office of energy assurance to be the service’s center of excellence, to “drive the train” on “strategic energy agility,” James said. The service also will launch a program called REDI, or the resilient energy demonstration initiative, to develop pilot projects that “push the envelope on energy assurance.” One of those projects will be at the Air National Guard’s 154th Wing in Hawaii, James told Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who had asked about Air Force bases relying on power from a “brittle, old, civilian electricity grid.” (James testimony)