FORT KNOX, Ky. (WDRB) -- LG&E shut off power around 10 a.m. Wednesday to all six substations at Fort Knox, part of a planned test to prove the U.S. military installation could run without external electricity.
Fort Knox is hoping to be a model for the Army, because it's the only U.S. military post to run completely independently of external power. The post uses its own generators to operate and believes this test proves it could operate indefinitely on those on-site generators.
"There’s a personal pride I think we take in that here at Fort Knox," said Maj. Gen. John R. Evans, the post's commanding general. "More importantly, I think, for our community, it gives us the reassurance that we know in the event of some type of crisis we have the ability to power the installation on our own."
Evans said the post passed the Energy Security System Test on Wednesday.
In some buildings, the generators kicked on and power was back up in less than five minutes. According to Pat Walsh, director of Public Works at Fort Knox, the entire Army post regained power within 11 minutes.
The goal is to not have to use this internal power source, but those at Fort Knox like knowing it's there in case it's needed.
The idea for the project began after a severe ice storm in 2009 caused Fort Knox to lose power. Evans said running off these generators would eliminate the threat of that happening again due to weather and also protect the post from potential cyber threats.
"Perhaps someone attacking our power grid or attacking our cyber infrastructure that could shut down power," he said. "We wanted to have the ability to isolate ourselves — if required — so that we could continue to thrive as an Army installation."
There were other tests done Wednesday during the power outage to check emergency equipment and rescue operations at the post.
"Our fire department actually has planned an elevator rescue during this power outage because, you know, when power goes off, if people are in elevators, they're stuck," Walsh said. "So they actually had volunteers get stuck on an elevator."
Taking Fort Knox "off the grid" was a $60 million project, but Walsh said it's paying for itself.
"We actually run some of our generation every day to reduce our monthly electric bill that we pay to LG&E, and we use those savings to help pay for this project," he said.
Fort Knox covers nearly 109,000 acres in Hardin, Meade and Bullitt Counties and has a daytime population of about 25,200 soldiers, civilian employees and family members. The Army said the post “delivers and integrates services, programs and infrastructure for a diverse, multi-component installation to enable total force readiness."
Walsh said Wednesday's test affected 12,000-15,000 people.
After running the facility off generators for two hours, officials planned to switch back to LG&E power at noon. The facility also conducted the test successfully last year.
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