SPOTLIGHT
I
t’s a long way from Afghanistan to the White House, but U.S. Army Reserve LTC Alan C. Samuels has experienced both in the past year.
In a White House ceremony on April 19, Samuels was among nine Ameri- cans honored as Champions of Change. He was commended for his research on energy-saving microgrid technology in Afghanistan, technology that saves energy as well as saving Soldiers’ lives.
As a civilian, Samuels is a research chem- ist at Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, where he studies remote-sensing tech- nology for the Army. In April 2011, he volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan on behalf of
the U.S. Army Research,
Development, and Engineering Com- mand (RDECOM), with the mission to stand up the RDECOM Field Assis- tance in Science and Technology Center (RFAST-C) at Bagram Airfield.
It was a six-month deployment that began on May 2, 2011, but extended to a total of nine months in theater. Samuels, for whom this was the first deployment, said he wanted to volunteer where he could be the most help, and he felt he could contribute best in a technical capacity, drawing on his scientific background and education.
SAVING ENERGY, LIVES RFAST-C, a pilot initiative chartered by RDECOM and supported by U.S. Army Materiel Command, solicits input from Soldiers in theater on field equipment and can then do engineering design, fabrica- tion, and integration of prototypes that address capability gaps. RFAST-C works closely with the item manager for any affected product, also coordinating with the various service laboratories under RDECOM and the forward-deployed S&T advisory teams.
150 Army AL&T Magazine
“I found the task to be highly rewarding, in that I had to hit the ground running and essentially write the book on this unprecedented activity,” Samuels told Army AL&T Magazine.
As Director of also received ancillary
the RFAST-C, Samuels taskings
from
RDECOM, which had an agreement to support the Product Manager Mobile Electric Power within Program Executive Office Command, Control and Com- munications – Tactical, the provider of standardized tactical electric power
to
the warfighter. The RFAST-C was tasked with supporting the logistics of receiving, storing, and transferring the microgrid system at Bagram Airfield to its opera- tional setting at Camp Sabalu-Harrison in Parwan province.
Microgrids can reduce fuel usage and the high cost associated with it, but the issue isn’t solely cost. According to Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of
the
Army for Installations, Energy, and Envi- ronment, who presented Samuels with the Champions of Change award, 70 to 80 percent of the logistics [in theater] are focused on moving fuel and water, which must be transported by convoys that can be targeted by our adversaries.
“One in every 46 convoys in Afghanistan suffers a casualty,” Hammack said. The microgrid technology that Samuels spear- headed in Afghanistan not only reduces energy consumption, but also saves lives in the process.
Samuels said that the microgrid system was one of many products emerging from the Net Zero Plus Joint Concept Technology Demonstration that added value through increased fuel efficiency. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs (ASD (OEPP)) elected to
In support of the task, Samuels also began data harvesting by publishing a Request for
Information through RDECOM
Headquarters to help the U.S. Forces – Afghanistan Joint Engineers, who were gathering their own theater energy cell sponsored by ASD(OEPP). Samuels said that his data-harvesting effort evolved into a proposal to layer power demand reduction initiatives onto the microgrid demonstration.
A standard 60-kilowatt Tactical Quiet Generator
runs most efficiently when
operating at 80 percent or more of its rated capacity. In Afghanistan, Samuels discovered that generators often ran at much lower rates. On top of poor fuel efficiency, generators operating at less
than 15 percent capacity will not
completely burn off their fuel, and the residue works its way into the exhaust system, causing maintenance concerns
sponsor the microgrid system in theater. With the task gaining visibility, Samu- els reached back through RDECOM to solicit volunteers with power and energy expertise to stand up an RFAST-C Energy Cell.
The Energy Cell collaborated closely with many outside experts who came into the- ater to support the microgrid, Samuels said, including Joe Barniak, who cham- pioned the initial installation; Brandon Bloodworth, who helped assess the power generation and distribution landscape throughout
Afghanistan; Matthew DeLay, and SGM the NCO-in-Charge
of RFAST-C, who provided timely net- working and theater-wide mobility to the assessment. Through everyone’s hard work, Samuels and RDECOM gained significant insight into how power was being managed across forward operating bases, combat outposts, and observation points throughout theater.
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