SAGE Power Production at the 24th NORAD Region

Contributed by John Nett

Electrical Power Production (AFSC 543X0) people operated and maintained primary and standby electrical generating equipment. Duties could range from operating the 24th NORAD SAGE center powerplant, a primary source facility, to operating small standby portability generator sets for different base/site needs.

Power Pro people were stationed all over the world wherever the Air Force required 99.9% reliability in the voltage and the frequency of the electrical power supplying its critical loads. Even if commercial power were available, the possibility of the destruction of the power grid during an international conflict was very real. This possibility required that all NORAD SAGE centers have their own powerplants staffed around the clock with Power Pro people.

It is said that the SAGE computers would burn up in a couple of minutes without the air conditioning equipment up and running. Commercial power was just not acceptable.

The Malmstrom SAGE center powerplant consisted of five 650 Kilowatt diesel generator sets. They produced over 3 megawatts of 2400VAC power, most of which was used for air conditioning loads. Four huge chillers cooled recirculated water moved by pumps through heat exchangers, fans blew the chilled air through the two computers and kept them cool.

It`s been said the power people were relatively invisible in the scheme of things, and mostly that`s true, but we were there, at CONUS bases and every remote mountain top radar/comm site the Air Force had.