On Wednesday, 17 Jan 24, Agility Prime, 413th FLTS, BETA Technologies, and DANNAR® personnel conducted a series of charging configurations to prove successful connectivity and battery charging by the DANNAR Mobile Power Station®. The DANNAR is a fully integrated battery system, carrying its own onboard inverter, liquid cooling system, and BMW engineered battery packs, delivered on a four-wheel drive chassis and powered by an electric drivetrain. As a self-contained platform, the MPS is maneuvered with a remote control and places half-a-megawatt of stored energy exactly where it’s needed, like the flightline charging the BETA aircraft.
During the tests that took place at Duke Field, the DANNAR was used first to provide charging to an electric car, then to one of BETA's battery packs stored in their ConEx. Next the DANNAR accepted a charge from the newly-installed BETA charging tower and then accepted a charge from Beta's mobile power truck. Finally, the DANNAR successfully charged the Beta aircraft. The charging of the BETA aircraft by an independent battery energy storage system (BESS) is a DoD first and demonstrates the ability to provide electric recharging power without accessing the electrical grid. The DANNAR MPS was then taken to Savannah, GA, for support to BETA in the Maple Thunder Exercise during the week of 29 March 2024. Again, the different charging configurations were successfully redemonstrated proving the concept of mobility, deployability, and aircraft recharging capability of a BESS.

The DANNAR MPS® is one type of BESS currently available on the market. The concept of a BESS is that it can trickle charge itself from the power grid (or other power sources) during low-use periods for use during peak periods, thereby reducing grid demands. A mobile BESS, such as the DANNAR MPS, can provide power to virtually any location without the need for infrastructure upgrades, e.g. installing power lines, transformers, conditioners, charging stands, etc. Using a BESS to off-load a high-rate of power exactly when and where it's needed, in order to recharge electric aircraft, could arguably become a critical capability in the world of electric aviation.
Provided with permission from AFWERX
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