The addition of new generators will soon double the capacity of backup power available to ITL’s 10,000 sq. feet. Of raised supercomputing floor space and will also have the ability to support Vicksburg’s power needs during peak energy usage times. The low-cost upgrade is part of an innovative public/private partnership with Entergy of Mississippi, who will both install and maintain the capability.
“During a power outage, backup power is critical to ensure integrity of petabytes of data, protection from multi-million-dollar supercomputer hardware fallout, and continuity of operations to DoD supercomputer users,” said ITL Supercomputing Research Center Chief Bobby Hunter. “This effort will give us an additional 3.2 megawatts of backup power generation capability.”
ITL’s partnership with Entergy began in 2018 with the need for a backup power solution for two computing facilities that were in construction at that time. At that time, there wasn’t a regulation allowing this type of service to be provided in our state, nor were there existing federal contracts for this type of service. There were, however, similar programs in surrounding states, and they became the foundation for the resulting Resilient Power as a Service (RPaaS) program.
“Mississippi is a regulated utility state, and every utility has defined service areas and a common set of regulations under which the utilities must operate,” said ITL Facility Engineer Steve Meadows. “We worked with Entergy to find a way within federal law to come up with a contact that functioned like those in surrounding states, and Entergy began working with the Mississippi Public Service Commission to be able to provide this service to ERDC ITL. After two years of effort, RPaaS – now known as Power Through – was born.”
In 2024, Meadows approached Entergy about expanding to 6.4 megawatts. After a series of discussions, a path forward was identified that allows ITL to maintain the same monthly fee. Entergy is responsible for the natural gas usage, and ITL pays for electricity generated by the system at the same rate ERDC pays for power delivered at the ERDC substation. The update allows Entergy to dispatch the full capacity of the generators in parallel with the utility to provide grid relief when required in times of high demand such as an incredibly hot day, ultimately benefiting the surrounding community.
“This addition will greatly aid our computational resources,” said ERDC Supercomputing Resource Center Director Dr. Benjimin Parsons. “Computational modeling is an important part of modern research and development work in that it allows you to rapidly, cheaply, and non-destructively experiment as part of the engineering design cycle. It also allows the simulation on physical phenomena that cannot be measured via physical experimentation.”
This is just one in a series of ongoing ITL power upgrades. Additional efforts include a joint project with GTI Energy and Cummins Inc. to install and demonstrate four 1.4-megawatt mobile power generation (MPG) units to further supplement backup power capability at the lab. This installation will be utilized to develop, test, and evaluate technology platforms that can be used in conjunction with other critical energy supply systems to deliver uninterrupted backup power supply and achieve energy and operational resilience to respond to disasters and remote applications.