Dewey Electric

CEO John Dewey knows that designing generators that use less fuel and keep equipment running isn’t just energy efficient and keeping bills down for people at home, but is helping our soldiers overseas.

Most people know that being energy efficient is good for the environment and the electric bill. But for a solder fighting overseas, it could mean the difference between life and death. That’s why Dewey Electronics, headed by CEO John Dewey, designs and manufactures generators that use less fuel and keep essential equipment running under extreme conditions.
Dewey Electronics Corporation, based in Oakland, N.J., has been providing electrical equipment to the Department of Defense for over 50 years.
 The company was founded in 1955 by Gordon and Frances Dewey. According to their website, it began as a “systems oriented research and development organization that designed and built electronic and electromechanical equipment for use by the U.S. Navy and Air Force.” They went public in 1968 and transformed into a manufacturing operation. Since 1996, they have produced one of the Army’s most commonly used generators - a two kilowatt, open frame style which runs on diesel fuel.
After Gordon Dewey’s unexpected death in 2002, his son John took over as CEO. Under his leadership, the company’s focus has shifted to compact diesel generators and power management systems for military use.
“By compact I mean one or two people can pick it up and move it,” Dewey said.
Under the direction of John’s father, a nuclear physicist, the company concentrated mainly on technically complex systems like radar, navigation and torpedoes.
“When I took over, I picked a market segment which was battlefield power generation and continued to build the company around being the best in compact power,” Dewey said. “To succeed now, a company really needs to be specialized.”
The company still conducts long-term research, but their major focus today is rapid design and production of equipment. Their driving philosophy is “simple equals reliable”, and they focus on a product’s practical application.
“In power generation you have to picture that a soldier’s going to be at a guard post somewhere in the desert making life or death decisions, or exposed on a mountaintop, and they really don’t have time to fix the generator,” Dewey said. “If the generator goes out it can have serious consequences. So what we do is focus on how to keep the equipment as simple as possible so that it works, and keeps working.”
The Department of Defense has consistently turned to the small, family-run business for electrical equipment with broad applications. Their products are used aroun dthe world and power everything from mobile kitchens to counter-mortar ground protection and IED defeat systems. The power systems are designed to be flexible.
“We use a modular design, kind of like Lego pieces, meaning that all of the parts we use are individual modules which can be snapped together for different applications,” Dewey said.
In recent years, the company has started to produce more direct current generators. Unlike alternating current generators, direct current generators can be easily connected to storage batteries, AC inverters or renewable energy sources, like solar panels. Dewey also builds the military equipment that optimizes the generation, storage, conversion and distribution of the energy obtained from these systems.
“These generators will work even when other systems fail,” Dewey said. “The user can put a wind, solar or fuel cell system in a remote location and know it may be generating extra power, but when push comes to shove, our generators work. If there’s no sun, if there’s no wind. It’s the backbone of reliability.”
Just as commercial energy producers are making the switch towards renewable energy, the Department of Defense is now concentrating its efforts on fuel efficiency for troops around the world - but for unique reasons.
“What they’ve discovered is a very large portion of casualties that are happening in convoys delivering fuel and water, not in traditional combat,” Dewey said. “So there are two things: one, they’re losing life and limb trying to get this fuel out to the forward operating bases, and two, their missions are limited in the distance they can go and the amount of time they can stay out based on how much fuel they use.”
The Department of Defense’s commitment to energy efficiency represents a major priority shift. It used to rely on ample and inexpensive fuel. In this respect, the military technology has followed that of the commercial sector, rather than the other way around. ELT