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North America / Defense

Fort Belvoir DC Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations8
System facts20
Sources reviewed8
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The legacy Fort Belvoir Direct Coupling DC Microgrid was a small Nextek-led 24 V DC building demonstration, not the later multi-megawatt Area 300 resilience microgrid. A 2022 national-laboratory survey describes the legacy work as a partial fluorescent-lighting retrofit with about 1 kW of DC load, direct-coupled photovoltaic generation, and no reported battery-backed islanding. Nextek's now-unavailable project page reportedly described 16 kW of solar, but that figure could not be independently confirmed from an accessible primary record. Fort Belvoir later completed a separate AC microgrid at Area 300 using 905 kW of fixed natural-gas generation and four 400 kW mobile diesel generators; those assets are documented here as a later project, not silently merged into the DC demonstration.

Research status
Historical demonstration with current operation unverified. The accessible national-laboratory survey characterizes the DC installation as a partial demonstration rather than a campus microgrid, and the original vendor page is no longer available. Separately, the Area 300 cybersecure AC microgrid completed a 72-hour demonstration on January 13–15, 2020, but the mobile generators are not permanently stationed there and the final report says full mobilization after an unplanned outage could take roughly 24–36 hours.
Historical classification
DC
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
38.71887, -77.15427
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Fort Belvoir DC Microgrid?

8 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC)

Fort Belvoir-based tactical microgrid research team [2]

Organization

Dominion Energy Virginia

Modified and coordinated the existing 34.5 kV distribution system used by the Area 300 island. [7]

Organization

IPERC

Supplied the GridMaster distributed microgrid control platform for Area 300. [7]

Organization

Nextek Power Systems

Integrator associated with the legacy direct-coupling DC lighting and photovoltaic demonstration. [3][5]

Organization

S&C Electric Company

Prime contractor and system integrator for the separate Area 300 ESTCP microgrid, led by principal investigator Aura Lee Keating. [6][7][8]

Organization

U.S. Army / Fort Belvoir

Host of both the legacy building-scale DC demonstration and the separate later Area 300 AC resilience project. [3][7]

Organization

U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center NVESD

Partnered on control-network integration and cybersecurity for the Area 300 project. [7]

Organization

U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command

Army research organization associated with Fort Belvoir microgrid development [2]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
16 [1]
Archived solar rating
16 kW; facility attribution and equipment details not stated [1]
Legacy DC bus and load
24 V DC with approximately 1 kW of fluorescent-lighting load in a partial building retrofit [3]
Legacy photovoltaic capacity
A historical Nextek project page reportedly listed 16 kW; the accessible LBNL survey confirms photovoltaic generation but does not provide that capacity, so 16 kW remains archive-only and independently unverified [3][5]
Legacy storage and islanding
No battery storage or islanding capability is identified in the national-laboratory DC-building survey [3]
Separate Area 300 fixed generation
Three natural-gas generators rated 205 kW, 325 kW, and 375 kW, totaling 905 kW [7]
Separate Area 300 mobile generation
Four 249th Engineer Battalion 400 kW diesel generator sets, totaling 1.6 MW; combined fixed-plus-mobile capacity was 2.505 MW [7]
Separate Area 300 service area
13 buildings on an existing 34.5 kV distribution network, with ten more buildings served than the project's original resilience baseline [7]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Legacy DC distribution

Nextek Power Systems

Direct-coupled 24 V DC photovoltaic and lighting demonstration. Accessible records do not disclose converter, panel, luminaire, or protection-device models. [3][5]

02

Separate Area 300 controller

IPERC — GridMaster

Distributed intelligent power controllers and a human-machine interface coordinated generation, feeder switching, black start, and resynchronization over a cybersecure network. [7]

03

Separate Area 300 fixed-generator controls

Woodward — easYgen

Generator controls interfaced the three existing natural-gas units with the GridMaster system. [7]

04

Separate Area 300 mobile generators

Caterpillar — EMCP II+ control platform

Four 400 kW Army mobile diesel generators operated at 4.16 kV and connected to the 34.5 kV system through a 2 MVA transformer. [7]

05

Separate Area 300 cybersecure networking

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories — SEL-2740S software-defined-network switches

Managed the control network integrated into the installation's closed restricted network. [7]

06

Separate Area 300 distribution equipment

S&C Electric Company — Vista underground distribution switchgear

The project added reclosers, disconnects, grounding transformers, bypass contactors, and associated medium-voltage equipment to sectionalize and island the existing distribution system. [7][8]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Identity boundary

    The recovered record's title points to Nextek's small direct-coupled DC project. The 2016–2021 ESTCP effort at Area 300 is a distinct 34.5 kV AC microgrid with different scale, assets, contractors, and purpose. Its capacities are therefore labeled separately rather than used to overwrite the legacy DC project's identity. [3][6][7]

  • Area 300 demonstration result

    A 72-hour demonstration in January 2020 exercised islanding, black start, weekday mission loads, N+1 generation redundancy, and reconnection. Black start was completed in about 90 seconds, beating a less-than-five-minute objective. [7]

  • Area 300 readiness limitation

    The four mobile generators are shared Army assets rather than permanently installed capacity. The final report estimated typical utility coordination at 12–24 hours and complete asset mobilization at 24–36 hours after an unplanned event, so the demonstrated island was not continuously ready in its full test configuration. [7]

  • Area 300 energy mix

    The demonstrated generation mix was natural gas plus diesel. The project did not incorporate renewable generation or energy storage, and no fuel-consumption, annual island-hours, or emissions data were published. [7]

  • Area 300 cost snapshot

    The final report groups approximate costs as $500,000 for high-voltage work, $400,000 for low-voltage work, $50,000 for generator use and fuel, and $350,000 for controls, studies, and training. These are demonstration categories, not a verified lifecycle cost. [7]

  • Evidence boundary

    The legacy Nextek page is preserved only as an archive reference and its 16 kW claim lacks accessible independent verification. No current operating data, renewable fraction, energy savings, or proof of continued use was found for the DC installation. CERDEC tactical research located at Fort Belvoir is not attributed to this project merely because it shares the base. [3][5]

Provenance

8 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2020-07-06

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    Direct Current as an Integrating and Enabling Platform for Zero-Net Energy Buildings

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Energies · Primary source

  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    Fort Belvoir Direct Coupling DC Microgrid

    Nextek Power Systems · Archived source

  6. [6]
    Cybersecure Microgrid Control System at Fort Belvoir

    Environmental Security Technology Certification Program · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Cybersecure Microgrid Control System at Fort Belvoir — Final Report

    Environmental Security Technology Certification Program / S&C Electric Company · Primary source

  8. [8]
    S&C Brings Resilience to Fort Belvoir

    S&C Electric Company / Microgrid Knowledge · Primary source

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