Every vertiport conversation eventually hits the same wall: power. The aircraft are coming, and so are the pads, but the electricity often isn't there. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has just said it wants every major base in America to make its own power. Some of those bases sit on civil airports. To be clear up front: the military-civil link below is a3i's proposal, not an existing program. No source we found shows a Defense Department microgrid powering civil eVTOL charging today.

The power problem, in numbers

  • 300 kW to 1 MW per aircraft. The Vertiport Electrical Infrastructure Study that NREL prepared for FAA surveyed manufacturers' peak DC charging rates in that range and recommends planning for 1 MW chargers, possibly higher. Its modeled sites ran from 900 kW (three chargers, constrained) to 13.3 MW (unconstrained).
  • 6–7x more demand. FAA's 2024 consultants workshop found charging raises site electrical demand roughly six to seven times, while existing feeders generally handle a two-to-three-times increase.
  • No FAA charging standard yet. FAA's Engineering Briefs list has no brief on electric aircraft charging. Vertiport design still runs through AC 150/5390-2D and its supplement, EB 105A.
  • Ohio already has numbers. A December 2025 study for the OKI Regional Council of Governments, led by WSP with Woolpert and Compass Infrastructure Group, planned charging at six southwest Ohio general aviation airports. At Middletown Regional, modeled peak demand rises from 0.11 MW in 2024 to 0.90 MW by 2030, once a 300 kW eVTOL charger, a 400 kW commuter-aircraft charger and support chargers are added. Costs across all six airports range from $2.4 million to $9.6 million each, and the plans allow 180 to 360 days just for the utility's enabling work.

That gap between 2–3x and 6–7x is where projects stall: utility upgrades, years of planning, and nobody sure who pays.

Start at the top: national policy

The Advanced Air Mobility National Strategy: A Bold Policy Vision for 2026–2036 (AAM Interagency Working Group, Dec 17, 2025) says new vertiports will be "funded mostly by private sources" and calls for public-private partnerships. It also lists energy as a core infrastructure component, "Energy: Energy infrastructure is needed to charge or fuel AAM aircraft and support facilities and equipment," and names as a major challenge "A lack of an existing framework to accommodate AAM into aviation infrastructure and energy infrastructure planning" (p. 12). Separately, on Sept 30 Secretary Hegseth announced FORTRESS America, with energy independence as its first priority: "every major military installation in America is going to generate its own power, independent of the civilian grid." A senior defense official said on Oct 20 that solutions can include microgrids and battery storage, that assessments of roughly 500 bases are under way to set costs, and that public-private partnerships are being studied to pay for it. No financing vehicle, solicitation or dollar figure exists yet.

The Strategy concedes that "finding the right combination of electrical power provision and distribution to foster AAM transportation may require more resources than local entities have available" (Rec 2.5, p. 16). It assigns AAM energy planning to DOE and its labs; it does not mention military installations.

Two national priorities, both leaning on P3s, both needing resilient power. That's the opening.

The local case: Springfield-Beckley

Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH) in Ohio is a shared-use airport: the City of Springfield owns and operates it, and the U.S. leases about 164 acres for the Ohio Air National Guard's 178th Wing. (Legally it is not a "joint use airport"; under 49 USC 47175(7) that term means a DoD-owned field.)

On Sept 29, 2026, the Guard awarded an $8,207,672 base microgrid contract at SGH: natural gas generators, with solar and battery storage as options, designed to let the base run off-grid for weeks to months. Its roots trace to $4.7 million in FY22 defense funding that Rep. Turner secured for a base-wide microgrid supporting the National AAM Center of Excellence at SGH. Today its scope is base facilities only.

1. Can a base microgrid ever serve civil charging?

Not directly today, but there are doors:

  • A lease with in-kind utility payment. 10 USC 2667 lets a military department lease non-excess property, longer than five years when in the public interest, and accept in-kind consideration including utility services that prioritize energy resilience. A developer could lease land, build generation, serve civil load, and pay the base in resilient power.
  • A third party owns the asset. The Air Force's microreactor program uses contractor-owned plants, and Eielson's pilot uses a 30-year power purchase agreement. But 10 USC 2922a is a purchase authority only, so civil sales would need lease and contract terms that allow them, with the base served first in an outage.

2. What federal rules apply on the airport side?

  • Open access. At an obligated airport, grant assurances 22, 23 and 25 (49 USC 47107) mean charging must be offered on reasonable, nondiscriminatory terms to all operators, a deal reserved for one manufacturer is a likely exclusive-rights problem, and what the city earns is airport revenue that stays on the airport.
  • Airspace review. Solar arrays, generators, battery enclosures and charging canopies all need Part 77 notice on Form 7460-1. Under FAA's 2021 solar policy, towered obligated airports must confirm no glare into the tower cab and fix any glare found later.

3. Who pays, beyond FAA?

  • DoD, through the community. The Defense Community Infrastructure Program (10 USC 2391) funds state and local infrastructure that supports an installation, explicitly including electric utility infrastructure, with at least a 30% local share. The FY26 round allowed awards of $250,000 to $20 million; no FY27 round has been announced. Springfield already knows the program: a $6 million DCIP grant helped build the National AAM Center of Excellence at SGH. City-owned electrical work that strengthens base resilience fits; chargers serving only civil users are a harder case.
  • DOE and the utility. DOE's grid resilience program (GRIP; its latest round, SPARK, targets transmission upgrades) funds utility-side work with cost share. Its latest applications closed in May 2026.
  • Commerce and the states. Commerce, through NIST, already funds AAM planning work at SGH, and JobsOhio put a $2.9 million site-program grant into the center's site work and utility extensions. States remain the most flexible partners. OKI's airport roadmaps list ODOT aviation grants covering up to 80%, federal CMAQ funds, and Duke Energy's Ohio line-extension policy, under which the utility can cover up to 60% of standard line-extension costs.

4. What does state and local law add?

  • Retail power rules. In Ohio, Ohio Edison holds SGH's certified territory. A third party selling power to civil tenants would likely need state certification as a competitive retail electric supplier, and territory rules may limit private lines. Bring in utility counsel early.
  • Local approvals. Adding civil load to a base microgrid would likely mean a revised interconnection agreement and a fresh environmental review by the Guard, FAA or both.

The bottom line

Vertiports need megawatts. Bases are about to build them, and the Pentagon is asking for private partners. At shared-use airports, the community, the Guard and the aviation industry can plan resilient power once instead of three times. Even well-planned civil sites size backup modestly. OKI's roadmaps pair solar with a 500 kWh battery, about an hour of backup for part of the charging load. A base microgrid built to run for weeks is a different class of resilience. The Strategy itself calls for "Robust investments in supporting infrastructure, particularly in the energy grid and new sources of electricity" (Rec 7.6, p. 51); it does not say who should build them. That's a3i's idea, not policy yet, and the time to raise it is now, while FORTRESS assessments and local microgrid designs are still being set, not after the concrete is poured.

As a former NASA contractor, I wrote NASA Contractor Reports on aviation electrification and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund and on Regional Air Mobility. I began my career in NYSDOT's aviation office. At a3i global aeronautics advisors, we help states, localities and airports plan and fund AAM infrastructure, including power. Let's talk: a3iglobal.com.

AI tools assisted with research and drafting. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.