Photo By Eric Pilgrim | R.J. Dyrdek (second from left), energy manager at Fort Knox’s Directorate of Public...... read more read more
Fort Knox was once again front-and-center this year for its energy resilience when the Directorate of Public Works’ energy manager found himself talking to congressmen and staffers about it.
R.J. Dyrdek traveled to Washington, D.C., Dec. 9 at the invitation of Kentucky Representative Brett Guthrie to attend the 2019 Energy & Environment Innovation Showcase. The 1 ½-hour meeting was sponsored by members of the House of Representatives’ Energy & Commerce Committee “to highlight the importance of investing in the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies to reduce emissions, power the economy of tomorrow, and provide greater value to American consumers.”
“We were very honored about being asked, and I was very happy about how nice it was that that committee wanted to hear from us,” said Dyrdek.
Representing one of only two military groups at the event, Dyrdek, said the other group involved two Soldiers demonstrating energy capabilities the U.S. Army plans will power the next generation of warriors on the battlefield.
“They put us in an arrangement to give that committee a brief of energy innovation, so there was a lot of academia there; there were 15 total groups,” said Dyrdek. “We were the only Department of Defense representative.”
Some of the groups included universities from across the nation that specialize in cutting edge energy solutions.
He explained the House representatives were looking for the U.S. Army and DOD to address two issues: how a Soldier operates in future environments, and how installations can best operate during future crises.
“They had videos running of our power shutdown in September; they had videos running of our YouTube videos that show the combined heat, power and infrastructure of how to do decentralized power generation, which is what we do here,” said Dyrdek. “They had handouts for projects that we’re doing across the country with respect to other installations – basically, a whole handout dedicated to Fort Knox that is pretty nice.”
The two-page handout included facts about what Fort Knox has achieved in recent years to reduced its energy footprint, including 240 buildings being implemented with LED lighting improvements and 3.5 megawatts of onsite solar power generation.
After the briefings, organization representatives remained on-hand to answer any questions committee members and staffers had.
“I got questions like how integrated our power shutdown was because a lot of them think it’s on a limited arrangement,” said Dyrdek. “It was very interesting to let them know, ‘No, we’re talking about a 100% power shutdown, not a limited shutdown of a building with a generator on the side. We turned off the power, to the entire installation, and stood up the entire installation.’
‘The Army expects 14 days of operation in that condition; one of their questions was, ‘Why 14 days?’ We told them we can run indefinitely.”
Dyrdek said he wanted to leave them with one big idea that they can take away from Fort Knox.
“I left them with the idea and concept that decentralized power generation is a big improvement on our thoughts for the nation’s electrical grid,” said Dyrdek. “Our electrical grid was designed and developed hundreds of years ago. It’s antiquated and outdated; it has a hard time upgrading because we’re still using the concept of centralized power generation.”
Dyrdek said he also took away some great information from the showcase.
“We talked a little bit about fuel cell technology being a next-generation improvement. One of the staffers asked specifically if Fort Knox would be interested in that,” said Dyrdek. “We said heavens yes, it fits right in our integrated picture of power generation.”
“It was also very beneficial to get a look at other aspects that are out there in private industry that maybe would apply to us.”
The biggest takeaway, according to Dyrdek, was the interest shown at the nation’s highest levels in what Fort Knox and others have to say about the future of energy innovation.
“I’m proud that our leaders in Congress are listening.”
| Date Taken: | 12.20.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.20.2019 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 356811 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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