Consumption Model Used to Identify Energy Security Concerns

By Brandon Naylor, Faculty Associate-Research, Energy Academic Group

This past fall, the Fuel Usage Study Extended Demonstration (FUSED) model was used to evaluate potential energy security concerns in naval operations overseas. The FUSED model is the product of over five years of development by Energy Academic Group interns and faculty. The model is able to predict how different policy and operational practices impact fuel consumption for battlegroups and the Combat Logistics Force fleet (CLF) that supplies them with fuel. FUSED was originally developed to support a Naval Postgraduate School student’s thesis on different fuel conservation practices, but later additions to the program enabled it to model additional facets of naval operations such as tasking ships with delivering fuel to ground combat troops or comparing an operation’s fuel requirements against the fuel delivery capabilities of a given number of CLF assets. In this way, FUSED can identify capability gaps and potential energy concerns. Future plans for the model include updating the interface to make it more user friendly so as to enable it to be used as a student educational tool.