Fort Knox goes off the grid to test historic backup power system

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Fort Knox goes off the grid to test historic backup power system

By District Energy posted 10-29-2018 08:30

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Katrina Helmer, WDRB.com

Summary

FORT KNOX, Ky. (WDRB) -- Fort Knox lost all power on purpose Wednesday morning in order to test the post’s multi-million dollar backup power system.

There are now six sub stations that can generate enough power for the post to fully operate without any need for external power. More than $60 million was invested in order to attain energy independence at Fort Knox as part of its Energy Security Program.

The plan was to cut power from LG&E just before 10 a.m. and have the post running on its own generators within ten minutes.

With the Fort Knox senior commander Maj. Gen. John Evans, U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie and Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of the Army for Energy and Sustainability Jack Surash witnessing the test, the post lost power just after 10 a.m. All lights flickered and then went dark, alarms were beeping and backup power slowly started whirring. All six sub stations were up and running in close to 15 minutes.