When the White House declared a national energy emergency last year, it wasn’t political theater, it was a warning. The US grid is under strain, demand is outpacing supply, and national security depends on how the country adapts to current and emerging power requirements. The United States is facing a national energy crisis brought on by an aging grid and infrastructure and a significant increase in demand. Energy resilience is not just an economic concern, it is also needed to project military power from the homeland, raising it to a national security imperative.
Rising demand pressure largely comes from consumers like data centers, which are projected to require twice the amount of energy in 2035 compared to 2024. Growing demand contrasted with ever increasing grid fragility creates risks that should be readily apparent, even to those outside of the energy sector. Without significant action, the risk to the energy supply is going to continue to increase, leaving the country and its defense even more vulnerable. Natural and man-made disasters, including cyberattacks, continue to increase in frequency and severity. Continued load growth from data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles, and industrial electrification have created unprecedented demand that only adds to the potential for severe disruptions.
The United States must look differently at today’s energy challenges to avoid wide-scale disruptions that will have a significant impact on the economy, the public, and military readiness. Policymakers and the Pentagon have to act together to ensure energy security for the nation and enable the armed forces to project power no matter what challenge they face.
A roadmap to secure energy supply for both the grid and the military
Policymakers, the power sector, and the public must look at the problem though a different lens. The energy system must shift to distributed generation close to the point of operational need. Advanced nuclear, storage, and renewables must play a part if we are to address real resilience, and this change needs to happen now.
Shifting electricity generation to a decentralized model
To achieve this goal, policymakers and utilities must embrace the concept of “distributed resilience,” which involves creating a system of microgrids and hybrid systems to allow local sourcing of power through systems that combine solar, storage, generation, and dispatchable backup power with the capability to island. These types of systems are available now and could help meet demand and increase resilience. To take advantage of new technology, the Department of Defense (DOD) should look at Energy as a Service where the military departments work with individual bases to contract with a private provider that guarantees resilient power, ideally inside the fenceline, and get away from pulling power from the commercial grid, subject to all of the risks and hazards of the aging infrastructure. A longer-range solution, and the one being championed by the US Army, is the use of advanced nuclear and small modular reactors to provide clean, continuous power while freeing the base from the risks and market fluctuations of fossil fuel generation.
Siting electricity generation on base
To take this approach a step further, the Pentagon could consider siting this distributed energy infrastructure on base through enhanced use leases and offtake agreements from power providers. With ample land area on many bases and heightened security, military installations provide an ideal location to build energy resilience. Experts have argued that nuclear power on installations can advance national security. The Army is already embracing the idea through its Janus Program and has announced plans to build ten to twelve small modular reactors on Army bases in the next ten years. By not relying on power from outside the fence line, military installations ensure their ability to operate 24/7 to defend the nation regardless of disaster or grid condition.
Powering data centers with on-base generation
Further building on this model can also address the growth in data center power demand and the strain and cost it is expected to place on existing infrastructure and consumer electricity bills. To meet the energy needs of future data centers, tech companies could build facilities near military bases and power them with on-base generation resources. The US Air Force has recently gone on record saying they are going to locate data centers on five bases, but the military services should look at co-located power generation to really make this work. On-base generation will provide mission assurance to the base and power to the data center while at the same time alleviating pressure on the public grid and driving down rates for customers.
The advantages, hurdles, and next steps to achieve this model
America is undergoing a rapid energy intensification. With the proliferation of AI, edge computing and 5G/6G, the power demand per square foot is rising rapidly. By co-locating commercial data centers on or near bases that have resilient power, the US grid, consumers, and the tech sector would realize several benefits. First would be low latency connectivity and secure communictions for the installation. Security for the data center would be improved and overall mission assurance for both parties increases. The solutions may be simple, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hard. Addressing these challenges will require some design and development considerations but, if systems are designed with enough head room at the outset, all of these challenges are surmountable, and if we prioritize advanced nuclear power generation, bases and data centers could support internal power requirements for years.
Ultimately, the United States cannot afford to remain vulnerable to grid disruptions, cyberattack, or weather impacts. Energy is a force multiplier, and the executive order stresses the importance of change and provides the tools necessary to drive that change. Success requires the government to pull together a coalition of stakeholders including DOD, Department of Energy, utilities, data center operators, regulatory bodies, local governments, and financial partners to collaborate and develop actionable solutions. The Army and the Air Force have started to take the first steps, but joint bases would be the next optimal step. Interservice collaboration could combine the Air Force effort to pull in data centers and with the Army’s work to site advanced reactors. This will develop the framework for a distributed, resilient, mission-focused energy architecture that supports national security and digital competitiveness which will benefit all Americans. The time is now to act and secure our energy future.
Troy Warshel is executive vice president at Potomac International Partners. A former senior DOD official and US Marine Corps F/A-18 pilot, he works at the intersection of defense, energy, and innovation, advising on operational energy, emerging technologies, and strategies to strengthen US and allied security.
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Image: Fort Benning (US Military, 2022).