Fort Wainwright to test power recovery efforts with exercise that simulates power grid failure

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - At an unspecified time and date in the last week of May, Fort Wainwright will test its ability to respond to power grid failure in what they call the Black Start exercise.

“Just like Fairbanks or households ... have backup generation, backup to the backup for, you know, everything from electricity, food, water,” said Clay Sauer, a member of the installation’s Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization & Security.

“That’s all we’re doing here.”

Those backups and recovery operations will be tested specifically at mission units around the center of the installation, but no disruptions are planned for community facilities such as housing or the commissary.

The exercise is important to ensure the installation can serve its mission at any time, regardless of the power grid status and operations.

“So we have the mission to be able to project power outside of Alaska. So one of our things is no matter what’s going on — if it’s an act of God, act of man, or just any random thing — we have to be ready to go at any time,” Sauer explained. “We’re just testing the backup systems to make sure that if whatever happens along the way, we’re ready to go.”

While these disruptions will be planned and created, naturally occurring causes of power loss can be sparked by a variety of factors.

“You have, you know, electrical feeder systems, you have forest fires, you have lightning strikes. Shoot, you have a squirrel that can get up into one of the transformers ... and blow something out so you just never know,” Sauer said. “It’s electricity.”

This exercise is an annual test.

“We do different exercises, drills quarterly, just to make sure all of our process and procedure is good because if you don’t practice it when you actually need it, that’s where you’re going to find your weak points,” Sauer said. “We don’t wait around when there’s an outage ... it doesn’t matter if it’s electricity, water, what have you; the team here puts things together pretty quick and gets things repaired as fast as they possibly can.”

He described the team involved with those operations as apt, agile, and resilient.

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