Power struggle: generators, batteries create 'logistics nightmare' for troops.

• Author: Wagner, Breanne
• Position: BATTLEFIELD ENERGY

SAN DIEGO -- WHEN GUNNERY SGT. GILBERTO YANEZ was put in charge of generator maintenance at Camp Fallujah in Iraq, he never anticipated the problems he would have purchasing generators from local vendors.

Merchants would often disguise systems by repainting and selling them as new. Generators never came with warranties. And manuals would be written in foreign languages, if manuals were included at all.

Adding to the predicament was price gouging, lack of repair parts and knowledgeable technicians, Yanez recounted during a National Defense Industrial Association conference.

Although the local vendors were responsible for many of these complications, similar difficulties are experienced throughout U.S. military bases in Iraq.

"Most power problems encountered in theater are our fault, not because of the operational scenario," said Ken Zemach, director of business development at Lion Cells, who worked with the Army in Iraq. Troubles in supplying energy can be blamed on technology only about 20 percent of time. The other 80 percent are caused by logistics, Zemach told National Defense.

Transporting materials, repair, training and support can all be problematic, he said.

For Yanez, logistics troubles abounded at Camp Fallujah. Flaws with locally purchased generators cost Marines time and money. When the generator came without a manual, many of Yanez's fellow Marines had to wing it.

"Some of the Marines had experience [with generators] that could trouble shoot or diagnose ... otherwise they just had to figure it out."

Bases demand a large amount of power, but there are not enough tactical generators available, said Master Sgt. Rowan Dickson, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters group engineer chief. Dickson lamented that vendors can't deliver equipment in the required time. There are too many different engines and generators, which impedes repair and parts replacement.

Like Yanez, Dickson also pointed to complications with buying generators from local vendors in Iraq. He showed conference attendees a photo of a generator that had been painted blue. He had scratched the surface to discover that it had been used and repainted.

One way to better manage the procurement of generators is to help simplify the purchase process, and shorten delivery time, Dickson said. This can be done though military contracts that encourage standardized power grids and decrease maintenance by limiting the types of generators that are accepted, he explained. Right now, four companies are under contract--Cummins Power Generation, Caterpillar Inc., FG Wilson Engineering Ltd. and Marapco, Dickson said.

Currently, generators are still being bought locally, Yanez said, but changes are underway. "There are new steps to eliminate problem generators like checking certain qualities, certain standards ... when we left [in February 2007], we made recommendations for improvements," he said.

At Camp Fallujah, Yanez said, generator maintenance also caused headaches.

In 2003, the firm Kellogg, Brown and Root was contracted to maintain generators. Yet KBR's team in Iraq was "understaffed and lacked...