Fort Riley will conduct an energy resilience readiness exercise, referred to as Black Start, on Friday.. This is a planned installation-wide power outage designed to test the installation’s emergency and standby energy generation systems, key infrastructure, and equipment. This exercise was postponed from last July.
The exercise will start at 4 a.m. The public works team plans to begin restoring power to most housing areas by 6 a.m. On-post schools can also expect to have power restored by 6 a.m., so schools will operate on normal schedules. Officials anticipate all power will be restored by 1 p.m.
A more complete list of affected facilities and anticipated power restoration times, along with frequently asked questions and preparedness tips, can be found at https://home.army.mil/riley/about/Black-Start-Exercise. The planned outage will only impact Fort Riley.
Congress has mandated that the Department of Defense services test the ability to operate without power in an emergency. Senior officials will learn from exercise outcomes about the infrastructure needs for crucial installation missions in the event of a power loss.
Kirk Hutchinson
Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist
USAG Fort Riley Public Affairs Office