Operational Energy Course, Level I Pilot

By Arnold C. Dupuy, PhD Faculty Associate—Research Energy Academic Group

The Energy Academic Group’s Curriculum Development Team successfully completed a pilot of the Operational Energy (OE) Course, Level I, held in Monterey from March 18-22, 2024. The pilot was developed and executed by COL (Ret.) Mike Davis and keynoted by RADM (Ret.) Lawrence Jackson, Director of the National Defense University’s Center for Joint and Strategic Logistics.

The course was developed to instruct Navy and Marine warfighters on the importance of OE as a mission critical asset. Moreover, OE I was designed for undergraduate or entry level Navy and Marine officers and enlisted to provide foundational knowledge for the next generation’s warfighters. The learning objectives provided a thorough overview of basic OE principles, whereby each student received instruction in four core competencies. More specifically:

1. Fuel: Scarcity of resources as it applies to mission accomplishment; understanding fuel types, uses and distribution within the Navy enterprise
2. Power generation and distribution: Basic electrical principles, both shipboard and land-based; fundamentals of grid operations; Electrification/hybridization of assets
3. Power storage: Basic battery maintenance and safety; Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) as a function of military operations; Integration of renewable energy sources
4. Energy management: Decision support tools, as well as current and future technologies for energy management; Geopolitical energy case studies

The practical application of each day’s instruction was exercised using daily scenarios which focused on a single OE competency. These exercises, all based on INDOPACOM scenarios, enabled analysis of potential tactics or strategies to achieve a defined outcome—whether on deployment, insulating an existing facility against energy shortages, or identifying critical logistical or energy nodes for risk and/or enhanced protection. On the final day of the pilot, a culminating exercise of all four competencies allowed students to demonstrate their understanding of the major OE components across a single INDOPACOM scenario. The development of these exercises was supported by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

The pilot student body was comprised of 18 Navy and Marine personnel from a variety of ranks and specialty fields. While the pilot course was delivered in person at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), provisions are being made to offer it in a hybrid environment. Based on the positive feedback and comments, it is expected the OE I course will go ‘live’ later in 2024.

The EAG Curriculum Development Team will subsequently begin work on an Operational Energy Course, Level II designed for more experienced warfighters.

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Contact Arnold Dupuy at arnold.dupuy@nps.edu for more information.