Power struggle: prolonged wars tax military capacity to deploy electricity.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

The war in Afghanistan is testing the limits of "deployable energy."

As the Pentagon prepares for a troop buildup, officials worry about the huge logistical challenge of having to ship enormous amounts of fuel and power generators to military bases that are located in remote areas and have no access to local grids.

That was not as big a problem in Iraq, where there is a far more developed infrastructure. In Afghanistan, troops must bring their own power.

The gargantuan demand for generators is straining the military's already overburdened logistics support system, said officials. Transporting fuel on dangerous mine-infested roads also creates additional hazards for troops and contractors.

Defense officials said the Pentagon is taking steps to reduce fuel demand at forward-deployed locations. But a recent investigation by the Government Accountability Office concluded that the military lacks dear guidance for addressing this problem, and noted that most efforts so far have been ad-hoc energy-savings projects that are not part of an overall strategy.

The Defense Department "still lacks an effective approach to fuel demand at forward-deployed locations," said William M. Solis, director of defense capabilities at GAO. He spoke at a hearing of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee.

"Managing fuel at forward-deployed locations has not been a priority.... and reduction efforts have not been well coordinated or comprehensive," said Solis.

The Pentagon should consider offering commanders financial incentives to consume less fuel, he said. GAO investigators at Camp Lemonier--a U.S. naval base in the Horn of Africa--found that base commanders had identified a number of ways to curtail fuel demand, but they saw little return on the investment because they would not be able to apply the savings toward camp improvements.

One reason why the Pentagon is having difficulties managing energy consumption at forward locations is the absence of data about fuel demand, said Solis. "We found that the information on fuel demand management strategies and reduction efforts is not shared among locations, military services, and across the department in a consistent manner."

The U.S. military currently operates several hundred bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the Defense Department supplied more than 68 million gallons of fuel each month on average to support those installations. "Fuel demands for these operations is higher than for any war in history,"...