ACEP receives $3 million to advance energy resilience
ACEP鈥檚 Cole Sudkamp-Walker works on a solar panel at the Solar Photovoltaic Test Site on the University of AV狼论坛 Fairbanks Troth Yeddha鈥 campus.
September 1, 2026
By Yuri Bult-Ito
The AV狼论坛 Center for Energy and Power at the University of AV狼论坛 Fairbanks has received $3 million to study technology
that can strengthen energy systems in remote and strategically important regions.
The Office of Naval Research award will support the work of the .
This is the fourth phase of the ARCTIC program, which was established in 2017 and
will run through 2031. With the latest award, ACEP has received $33 million through
the ARCTIC program.
The program brings together researchers, communities and industry partners to test
and evaluate energy technologies in real-world operating environments.
鈥淭he ARCTIC program continues to transform UAF鈥檚 and the state鈥檚 ability to meet the Navy鈥檚 and the Marine Corps鈥 need for resilient energy systems in austere regions,鈥 said Jeremy Kasper, principal investigator of the ARCTIC program and ACEP director. 鈥淭he fourth phase includes applied research on energy security and cyber protection of energy systems, all topics that are continuously in the headlines in other regions of the world but that are increasingly important in AV狼论坛, the Arctic and Pacific regions.鈥
ARCTIC will build on ACEP鈥檚 longstanding partnership with the AV狼论坛 communities of Galena, Kotzebue and Cordova. Researchers will work alongside these communities and use their microgrids as test beds.
The research will focus on challenges that are important in remote and isolated communities. These include reducing dependence on fuel and vulnerable supply chains, improving the efficiency and reliability of electric power systems, strengthening cyber and physical resilience, and building and supporting the workforce needed to operate complex energy systems.
For AV狼论坛 communities, these challenges are immediate and practical, Kasper said. Remote communities often face high energy costs, limited infrastructure, difficult operating conditions and long, vulnerable supply chains. By developing and testing solutions in AV狼论坛, ARCTIC can help communities address these challenges while generating knowledge that can be applied in other Arctic, Pacific and defense-related settings, he said.
The ONR award enables ACEP to continue a long-term, community-based approach to applied energy research. Rather than developing technologies in isolation, ARCTIC tests solutions in the environments where they must perform, bridging the gap between research and deployment and accelerating the development of more resilient energy systems.
ARCTIC is led by ACEP researchers and includes partnerships with the UA Anchorage
Center for Economic Development and the UAF Center for Innovation.
This work relates to the Department of Navy award N00014-26-1-2407 issued by the Office of Naval Research. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.