JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- The Richardson side of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will be experiencing a scheduled power outage Oct. 6, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The outage will test the JBER-Richardson emergency backup electrical power generation system. It is also an opportunity for the base, State of Alaska, Anchorage School District, and other units to test equipment and systems such as emergency lighting, auto-backup electrical generators, security systems and communication systems, as well as other power outage protocols.
“During the test, JBER-R will experience multiple electrical power outages throughout the day,” said Bart Morehouse, 673d Civil Engineer Squadron JBER-R utility privatization team engineer technician. “[We anticipate] facilities should not be without electrical power for more than one continuous hour.”
This is the fifth year JBER-R and Doyon Utilities are conducting the scheduled electrical power outage in a four-part series – testing substation relay programming, the supervisory controls and data acquisition programs, verifying standard operating procedure and ensuring protocols are properly administered. They will also train personnel on responses to outages.
JBER-R will be completely disconnected from its primary commercial electrical power source, causing a complete outage.
“When we kill the power on the big service, we are going to use the diesel generators,” Morehouse said. “Our diesel generators have a minimum of 72 hours worth of fuel, but if we bring landfill gas online, we can stretch out that 72 hours to 30 days. So if we have to [generate our own power] from the rest of the world, we could probably last 30 days without having any diesel fuel delivered to us.”
Morehouse said he hopes to have JBER-R’s capacity to JBER-Elmendorf, but for now, he said, it is still a work in progress.
It is important to test the power this time of year because of temperatures potentially dropping to sub-zero.
“I’ve been out here for two power outages on [JBER-R] that happened during winter,” Morehouse recalls. “I got a call out on base, and the temperature was at -11 degrees Fahrenheit; when I left, it was -17 below. With those temperatures, buildings do not last long very long before things start freezing up.
“We are more susceptible during winter and it is the most critical time to maintain facilities,” Morehouse said. “We won’t lose structures to freezing pipes because we have a back-up power.”
Morehouse advised people to know how to protect their systems and to be patient with them during the outage.
For more information what to do before, during and after a power outage, visit www.ready.gov/power-outages.