DoD preparing smart microgrid technology demonstration

Declaring that today's electrical grid is unacceptably at high risk of extended outages, the Defense Department is preparing to deploy technologies for a defensible smart microgrid capable of operating on its own for an extended period of time.

To that end, according to a request for information released August 19 on behalf of the Pacific and Northern commands, DoD is preparing a joint capabilities technology demonstration dubbed "Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security" (SPIDERS). The demonstration will require an integrator capable of putting together technologies for increased energy efficiency and intelligent power distribution while also drawing on alternative, renewable, or hybrid power sources.

Northern and Pacific commands represent DoD interests in a smart grid partnership that will include the departments of Homeland Security and Energy and the private sector, the RFI states.

Defense against cyber attacks is a specific area of interest, according to the RFI. Specifically, the ability to integrate, "via a third party company," a "Virtual Secure Enclave" strategy for supervisory control and data acquisition control systems. The SPIDERS JCTD will be "the pioneer in the area of cyber defense of smart microgrids," the RFI states.

Sen. Daniel Inouye (D- Hawaii) is requesting a $12.5 million fiscal 2011 earmark directed to Pacific Command for creation of a Virtual Secure Enclave in Oahu, Hawaii, according to the senator's disclosure of congressionally directed spending requests.

The "unacceptably high risk" language comes directly from a February 2008 Defense Science Board report, which characterized the DoD installations as beset by increased critical load demands while having to relying on a grid diminished in resiliency. Installations also lack backup generators and transformer spares in sufficient numbers to enable quick repair, the report found.

The RFI also refers a May 2009 report from the Center for Naval Analyses' Military Advisory Board, which asserts that "a fragile domestic electricity grid makes our domestic military installations, and their critical infrastructure, unnecessarily vulnerable to incident, whether deliberate or accidental."

For more:
- go to the SPIDERS JCTD RFI
- download a February 2010 SPIDERS JCTD presentation from Pacific and Northern commands (.pdf)
- read the February 2008 Defense Science Board report on DoD energy strategy (.pdf)
- read the May 2009 CNA Military Advisory Board report, "Powering Americas Defense, Energy and the Risks to National Security" (.pdf)
- see Sen. Inouye's fiscal 2011 earmarks, or go directly to his Defense earmarks (.pdf)

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