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Fort Carson Microgrid

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

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations22
System facts33
Sources reviewed12
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Fort Carson's legacy microgrid record corresponds to Phase 2 of the Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS), a three-feeder, seven-building cybersecure demonstration completed in 2013–2014. It integrated three existing diesel generators, part of a 2 MW photovoltaic plant, and five bidirectional electric-vehicle chargers. The 72-hour test succeeded, but a 2025 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory handbook, based on a December 3, 2024 installation interview, reports that proprietary controls were not sustained, had become obsolete and unsupported by about 2020, and left the system effectively inoperable or 'bricked.' Fort Carson subsequently installed a separate 4.25 MW/8.5 MWh lithium-ion battery in 2018–2019 and completed a separate 1 MW/10 MWh flow battery in November 2024; neither should be presented as proof that SPIDERS remains operational.

Research status
Legacy SPIDERS microgrid is abandoned and effectively inoperable. It was handed to the installation without a durable operations-and-maintenance or firmware-support path; limited training and proprietary controls made revival too expensive relative to mission priority. Separate later assets remain: the lithium-ion demand-management BESS was implemented in January 2019, and the GridStar Flow long-duration demonstration finished construction in November 2024 and entered an 18-month test program. No public 2025–2026 operating results were located for the flow pilot.
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 evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Fort Carson Microgrid?

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

Organization

AECOM

Energy-services contractor for the 2019 battery project, implemented through an energy-savings performance contract. [7][6]

Organization

Boulder Electric Vehicle

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

Organization

Burns & McDonnell

Performed SPIDERS detailed design, implementation, commissioning, testing, and training. [4]

Organization

Coritech Services

Bidirectional high-capacity EV charger manufacturer [2]

Organization

Geli

Provided predictive software controls for the separate 2019 lithium-ion BESS. [6][7]

Organization

Idaho National Laboratory

SPIDERS national-laboratory technical support [2]

Organization

IPERC

Supplied the proprietary distributed microgrid control platform used by SPIDERS. [4][5]

Organization

Lockheed Martin

Supplied the GridStar lithium-ion BESS and the separate GridStar Flow long-duration battery. [7][8][10]

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 / Fort Carson

Host and eventual owner of SPIDERS and host of the later lithium-ion and flow-battery projects. [4][5][7][8]

Organization

U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Leads the separate GridStar Flow field demonstration and 18-month validation effort. [8]

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

Led preliminary design and interagency support for SPIDERS Phase 2. [4]

Organization

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

SPIDERS cybersecurity and resilience partner [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
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]
SPIDERS service area
Three distribution feeders serving seven mission buildings [4]
SPIDERS dispatchable generation
Three existing diesel generators operated with N+1 redundancy; individual make, model, and kW ratings are not disclosed in the project report [4]
SPIDERS photovoltaic resource
A nominal 1 MW segment of the installation's 2 MW solar array was incorporated into the architecture, but only about 500 kW was available during the demonstration [4]
SPIDERS electric-vehicle interface
Five Coritech bidirectional chargers connected three Smith Electric trucks and two Boulder Electric Vehicles vehicles [4]
Separate lithium-ion BESS
4.25 MW / 8.5 MWh, equivalent to two hours at rated power; implemented in January 2019 after installation work in late 2018 [6][7]
Separate flow battery
1 MW / 10 MWh Lockheed Martin GridStar Flow redox-flow system, designed for up to ten hours of support to selected facilities; construction completed November 2024 [8][9][10]

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]

05

SPIDERS controls

IPERC

Distributed intelligent controllers, master controller, and human-machine interface coordinated generators, feeder switching, photovoltaic production, and vehicle-to-grid assets. Proprietary firmware and discontinued vendor support later became the principal reason the system could not be economically restored. [4][5]

06

SPIDERS vehicle-to-grid chargers

Coritech

Five bidirectional chargers interfaced three Smith Electric trucks and two Boulder Electric Vehicles vehicles; the report does not publish per-charger kW or usable vehicle-battery energy. [4]

07

SPIDERS distribution and synchronization

Model not publicly disclosed

High-voltage switchgear, automatic-transfer-switch bypass breakers, synchronizers, motorized switches, and network-distribution-transfer equipment enabled the three-feeder island and grid reconnection. Final device manufacturers and models are not comprehensively identified. [4]

08

Separate lithium-ion storage

Lockheed Martin — GridStar Lithium

A containerized 4.25 MW/8.5 MWh installation, described by USACE as more than twelve battery containers, used for peak-demand reduction and energy-cost management rather than as a continuation of SPIDERS. [7][6]

09

Separate lithium-ion BESS controller

Geli

Artificial-intelligence and predictive-dispatch software optimizes the battery around installation load and tariff peaks. [7][6]

10

Separate long-duration storage

Lockheed Martin — GridStar Flow

A 1 MW/10 MWh aqueous redox-flow battery installed as the Department of Defense's first megawatt-scale long-duration field demonstration of this technology. [8][9][10]

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.

  • 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]

  • SPIDERS demonstration

    The island was formed in roughly ten minutes; photovoltaic generation was brought in about five to ten minutes later, and a 72-hour exercise successfully demonstrated cybersecure islanding, multiple generation sources, N+1 operation, and reconnection. [4]

  • SPIDERS lifecycle outcome

    The 2025 PNNL handbook says the demonstration was transferred without adequate sustainment funding, firmware updates, documentation, or operator training. By about 2020 the proprietary controls were obsolete and no longer vendor-supported; the installation described the system as effectively bricked and chose not to revive it. [5]

  • Solar chronology conflict

    DOE's 2014 SPIDERS report treats the 2 MW photovoltaic plant as an existing resource during the 2013–2014 demonstration, while PNNL's 2025 retrospective lists the 2 MW system as commissioned in 2016. The sources are not reconciled, so the discrepancy is retained rather than assigning a false single commissioning date. [4][5]

  • Lithium BESS economics

    The roughly $8 million system was delivered through an energy-savings performance contract with no up-front installation cost to the base. Project sources forecast about a 9% peak-demand reduction and roughly $500,000–$525,000 per year of savings under a 20-year guarantee; these are projections, not independently audited realized savings. [7][6]

  • Flow-battery test plan

    The GridStar Flow system is intended to charge from Fort Carson solar, reduce peaks, and provide limited-facility backup for as long as ten hours. ERDC began an 18-month operational test after November 2024 construction completion; no test results, availability, round-trip efficiency, or delivered backup events were found. [8][9]

  • Separate resilience activity

    An April 2023 base-wide black-start exercise covering 93 facilities was a separate readiness event and is not evidence that the SPIDERS controller was restored. Likewise, Fort Carson's reported 12% renewable-electricity share in fiscal 2023 is installation-wide, not the energy mix of the abandoned microgrid. [11][12][5]

  • Evidence boundary

    SPIDERS sources do not publish measured diesel-fuel savings or renewable percentage, so generic expectations such as 30% fuel reduction are not treated as project performance. Later storage capacity is labeled separately and must not be added to the legacy SPIDERS configuration. [4][5]

Provenance

12 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]
  4. [4]
    SPIDERS Phase 2 Final Report: Fort Carson, Colorado

    U.S. Department of Energy · Primary source

  5. [5]
    Microgrid Lifecycle Lessons Learned Handbook

    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory · Primary source

  6. [6]
    Fort Carson Battery Energy Storage System Case Study

    National Laboratory of the Rockies · Primary source

  7. [7]
  8. [8]
    ERDC Celebrates Milestone With GridStar Flow Battery Installation at Fort Carson

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center · Primary source

  9. [9]
  10. [10]
  11. [11]
  12. [12]

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