The Army and Hawaiian Electric Co. held a dedication Thursday to mark the completion of a new Schofield generating station that will strengthen Oahu’s electrical grid and pave the way for more renewables.

The 50-megawatt facility is on 8 acres at Schofield Barracks that the Army is leasing to HECO. It will be the only power plant on Oahu that is located inland, which makes it immune from the potential impacts of storms, tsunami and rising sea level. Since the facility is on a secure Army base, the generating station can be a key component of recovery in the event of an emergency that affects the power grid.

HECO said its partnership with the Army saved customers $4.3 million compared with what the cost would have been to build the facility off base. The station is projected to reduce oil use by about 26,000 barrels annually.

“This partnership between the Army and Hawaiian Electric is a model for providing energy security for our military bases,” HECO President and CEO Alan Oshima said in a statement. “It’s truly a win-win, and we are proud to have played a part in this project. Situated away from the shoreline, this facility features quick-starting generators that will benefit all of our customers by producing power when sun and wind sources fluctuate during the day.”

The Schofield facility, which is owned and operated by HECO, will run on a combination of biofuels and conventional fuels and will feed into the island’s electrical grid and serve all customers on Oahu. In case of an emergency, it will be able to directly feed Army facilities in Central Oahu, if necessary, to provide reliable power to Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Airfield and Field Station Kunia.

The station is the first on the island to use flexible and efficient generators that will complement increasing levels of solar and wind power on the Oahu grid. The generators will be capable of quickly starting up, shutting down or changing their output in response to sudden changes in solar and wind energy resources, which provide varying levels of energy depending on weather, time of day, cloud cover and other factors.