North America / Defense

Fort Carson Microgrid

Organizations, planners, suppliers, equipment, controls, and reported system specifications—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record

Named organizations16

System facts14

Sources reviewed3

Last researched2026-07-19

Fort Carson hosted Phase 2 of the U.S. SPIDERS cybersecure microgrid program. The seven-building demonstration combined existing diesel assets, part of a 2 MW PV field, five vehicle-to-grid electric vehicles, motor-operated switching, and IPERC's distributed control architecture; DOE's transition report documents both equipment and black-start sequence.

Research status: SPIDERS Phase 2 demonstration completed in 2013; current field configuration is not established by the cited transition report
Historical classification: Military
Reported capacity: 5,000 kW
Coordinates: 38.73749, -104.78886

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 evidence Research methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Fort Carson Microgrid?

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

Organization

Boulder Electric Vehicle

Supplier of two vehicle-to-grid electric vehicles [2]

Organization

Coritech Services

Bidirectional high-capacity EV charger manufacturer [2]

Organization

Idaho National Laboratory

SPIDERS national-laboratory technical support [2]

Organization

IPERC

Distributed microgrid-control designer and master-controller supplier [2]

Organization

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

SPIDERS national-laboratory technical support [2]

Organization

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

SPIDERS national-laboratory technical support [2]

Organization

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

SPIDERS national-laboratory technical support [2]

Organization

Sandia National Laboratories

SPIDERS national-laboratory technical support [2]

Organization

Smith Electric Vehicles

Supplier of three vehicle-to-grid electric vehicles [2]

Organization

Spiders

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

U.S. Army ERDC-CERL

Military-facilities research and technical partner [2]

Organization

U.S. Army Fort Carson

Host installation and system operator [2][3]

Organization

U.S. Army TARDEC

Vehicle-to-grid integration partner [2]

Organization

U.S. Department of Defense

SPIDERS co-sponsor [2]

Organization

U.S. Department of Energy

SPIDERS co-sponsor and technical-transition lead [2]

Organization

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

SPIDERS cybersecurity and resilience partner [2]

System evidence

Reported capacity and specifications

Values can describe different project phases or components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar: 2000 [1]
KW Gas/Diesel: 3000 [1]
Critical load: Approximately 1.1 MW across seven buildings [3][2]
Priority load: Approximately 1 MW [3]
Existing diesel capacity: Approximately 3.25 MVA across three directly connected assets [3][2]
Solar connected to microgrid: 1 MW from an existing 2 MW field; 500 kW was available during the cited demonstration [2]
Vehicle-to-grid fleet: Five EVs and five bidirectional chargers [2][3]

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

Microgrid control system

IPERC

Distributed intelligent power controllers, master control, HMI/GUI, and supervisory cybersecurity functions; the Fort Carson report does not give a product model. [2]

02

Bidirectional EV chargers

Coritech Services

Five high-capacity bidirectional chargers used the EV fleet as controllable generation and storage resources. [2]

03

Vehicle-to-grid EVs

Smith Electric Vehicles / Boulder Electric Vehicle

Three Smith and two Boulder vehicles participated in the demonstration; individual battery-pack models are not reported. [2]

04

Distribution switching

Model not publicly disclosed

Motor-operated sectionalizing switches, generator bypass breakers, automatic synchronizers, and a neutral-deriving transformer enabled island formation; manufacturers are not consistently disclosed. [2]

Recovered detail

Additional technical notes

Concise system facts recovered from the historical project record. Treat these as historical unless a newer primary source confirms them.

Black start
The microgrid formed in roughly ten minutes; PV inverters required an additional five to ten minutes before reconnecting to the islanded bus. [2]
Control architecture
IPERC's distributed controllers coordinated local assets under a supervisory master controller instead of relying on one central field I/O point. [2]
Renewable availability
The design connected 1 MW of the 2 MW PV field, but the final demonstration had only 500 kW available; the page keeps design and test conditions separate. [2]

Provenance

3 sources

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

[1]
Recovered Microgrid Projects record
Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2020-07-06
[2]
SPIDERS Phase 2 Fort Carson Technology Transition Consolidated Report
U.S. Department of Energy · Primary source
[3]
SPIDERS: Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security
U.S. Department of Energy · Primary source