In recent years, power outages caused by extreme weather or substation attacks have exposed the vulnerability of the electric grid. For the nation's military bases, which are served by the grid, being ready for outages is a matter of national security. What better way to test readiness than to cut the power' Lincoln Laboratory is doing just that with its Energy Resilience Readiness Exercises (ERREs). During an exercise, a base is disconnected from the grid, testing the ability of backup power systems and service members to work through failure. Lasting up to 15 hours, each exercise mimics a real outage event with limited forewarning to the base population. 'No one thought that this kind of real-world test would be accepted. We've now done it at 33 installations, impacting over 800,000 people,' says Jean Sack '13, SM '15, who leads the program with Christopher Lashway and Annie Weathers in the laboratory's Energy Systems Group. According to a Department of Energy report, 70 percent...
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