NSA plans mitigation for electrical problems

Posted by Jeff Quinton on January 6, 2008

The National Security Agency’s electrical and power supply problems have been well documented in the past year or so, including a post here last summer. Siobhan Gorman, formerly of The Sun and now at the Wall Street Journal,has detailed all of the problems with the substations and the wiring capacity at NSA facilities on Fort Meade and how that led to outages last spring. There has even been talk of moving data processing facilities to other states to cut back on usage.

Earlier this week, the folks at cryptome.org pulled a notice from the Federal Register entitled “Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Power Upgrades Project Within the Fort Meade Complex, MD.” Previously, cryptome.org published an analysis of satellite photos of electrical facilities at Fort Meade.

From the summary of the Federal Register filing:

The National Security Agency (NSA) announces that it intends
to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as part of the
environmental planning process for power and utility upgrades at Fort
George G. Meade, Maryland (hereafter referred to as Fort Meade). The
project was initiated to address aging infrastructure reliability
issues as well as meet mission growth requirements. The Proposed Action
includes the construction of generator facilities, two electrical
substations, a boiler plant and chiller plant, as well as ancillary
facilities and parking. The proposed utility upgrades would allow for
100 percent self-contained redundancy, should off site power sources
fail.
Publication of this notice begins a scoping process that identifies
and determines the scope of environmental issues to be addressed in the
EIS. This notice requests public participation in the scoping process
and provides information on how to participate.

There will be an open house on this issue at the Ramada Inn Laurel at 3400 Fort Meade Road in Laurel on February 20 at 4 p.m. It will be followed by a scoping meeting from 5 to 7 p.m.

Written comments can be sent to Mr. Jeffrey Williams, Environmental and Safety Services, National Security Agency, 9800 Savage Road Suite 6404, Fort Meade, MD 20755-6248 or he can be e-mailed at jdwill2@nsa.gov. Williams can also be e-mailed or called at (301) 688-2970 for anyone with further questions on the meetings.

More details on the plans from the filing:

Proposed Action and Alternatives: The Power Upgrades Project, an
NSA investment and major systems acquisition, was initiated to meet the
growth requirements of NSA as well as address aging infrastructure
reliability issues. The Proposed Action would consist of construction
of the following:

–50 mega volt amp (MVA) North Electrical Substation with 15 kilo volt
(kV) switchgears, a 50 mega watt (MW) generator plant with pollution
control system and oil storage facilities.
–South Generator facility consisting of 36 MW generator plant.
–Replacement of four 85-90 million British Thermal Units per hour
(MMBTU/hr) boilers, the boiler building, and two 200,000 aboveground
oil storage tanks.
–Addition of a central chiller plant of 20,000 tons of chilled water
capacity with a dedicated substation and emergency generator capacity.
–Replacement surface parking and parking garages.
–Associated ancillary equipment and utility connections.

Alternatives identified include up to five locations for the
proposed construction of the North and East substation facilities on
the NSA campus, two options for power generation, and various pollution
control systems. These alternatives will be developed during
preparation of the Draft EIS as a result of public and agency input and
environmental analyses of the activities. The No Action Alternative
(not undertaking the Power Upgrade Project) will also be analyzed in
detail.