The power stays on in our buildings with the help of the interior electrical shop

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tammie Ramsouer
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  An Airman is the first to arrive to her office in the morning and finds the space flooded and dark.  She flips the light switch on and nothing happens.  The base electricians are contacted and respond to fix the problem. Only a few minutes later the room is illuminated so the work day can begin.

The electricity would not flow through the building's electrical circuits on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson without members of the 773d Civil Engineer Squadron's Interior Electric Shop.  They address any problems associated with building electrical systems throughout all base facilities, except in the family housing community areas.

"We take care of the installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of electrical systems in all facilities to include, dorms, hangars, offices, etc., here on JBER," said Guy Lewis, 773d CES Interior Electric Shop supervisor.  "We mainly do all of our exterior installation, maintenance and repair during the summer months because of the long cold winters and frozen underground, unless there is a true emergency situation."

The shop also provides electrical power support to other 773d CES shops.  Heating, air conditioning and ventilation, plumbing, structure, and liquid fuel shops are provided the same services for their unique system operations, just as frequently as the base facilities themselves. 

Due to joint basing and picking up the Army's demand, the interior electric shop's workload has increased.

"For the last nine months, the interior electrical shop has been the only lifeline to keep up with electrical facility maintenance for buildings throughout [JBER-Richardson], which is very difficult with the minimal manning the shop has had to endure," Lewis said. "This has been very difficult due to the many facilities on the 84,000 acres of land the buildings reside on."

Not only do they service and maintain the power, they make sure the power stays on. If the power goes out, they are the first to be there.

"If there is a power outage anywhere on the base, we strive to get the power back on as quickly as possible," Lewis said.  "It doesn't matter whether it's an interior or exterior problem, both carry the same urgency.  About 90 percent of the time when there is an interior power outage, it is due to tripped circuit breakers, which is very common for us.  These circuits normally trip because of plugging in too many appliances, i.e. coffee pots, microwaves and portable heaters."

Although a small percentage of the electrical problems are created by human error, it does take a toll on the number of service calls the interior electrical shop must respond to, he added.

In order to prevent some of these issues, the interior electrical shop provides instructions, guidance and training to facility managers in preventing these types of incidents to help decrease the number of trouble calls.

"Our shop consists of experienced civilians and military personnel that begin their apprentice program, that trains them to become competent electricians," Lewis said. "Before the Airmen begin their journey within the interior electric shop, they receive training at the 366th Training Squadron at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas."

There they learn theory, technical skills and safety practices that are required to become a qualified electrician.

"Regardless of which shop they are in, the training they receive prepares them to be placed in any of the three we have here," Lewis said.  "We switch the Airmen amongst the three shops, interior, exterior and air field lighting about every six months."

With the training the electricians receive, they can keep electricity flowing throughout the numerous power lines, facilities, flight line.  Along with the training the interior electrical shop conducts, the slow process of conserving energy with the transition from T12 to T8 fluorescent and light-emitting diode lighting fixtures continues.

The fixtures provide the same amount of lighting output with a lower consumption of electricity.

The change will not require the interior electricians to maintain the lighting fixtures as often, because these fixtures are designed to be more efficient with an increased service life.  Along with the new lighting fixtures, some facilities, including dorms and billeting on JBER-Richardson, have new ways of conserving energy.

"Some lighting systems are provided with motion sensor controls, so when a person enters a room or hallway, the lights automatically turn on and are timed to shut off after a predetermined time if no one is in the area," said Christine Guido, 773d CES interior electrician work leader.

Although they currently have 18 electricians working in the interior shop, the installation's buildings are have the power and maintenance needed to run the mission at JBER.