Courtesy Photo | Military Ocean Terminal, Sunny Point, has a solar array and microgrid generator. The...... read more read more
By Susan A. Merkner
U.S. Army Installation Management Command Public and Congressional Affairs
Military Ocean Terminal, Sunny Point, North Carolina, held its first Black Start Exercise to glowing reviews.
The installation known as MOTSU on the west bank of the Cape Fear River is the Army’s ocean terminal for military equipment and the Department of Defense’s East Coast strategic ammunition port. It also is the nation’s largest ocean terminal for receiving and delivering military equipment, such as missiles, rockets, howitzers, grenades, projectiles and more.
MOTSU is one of the U.S. Army’s terminals, depots, activities, arsenals and plants, or TDAAPs, which are part of U.S. Army Installation Management Command’s Sustainment Directorate.
Black Start Exercises, or BSEs, assess an installation’s energy resilience and emergency response capabilities in the face of a major power outage that cuts electricity to the base.
The Aug. 21 event was the first BSE executed by a TDAAP installation under the IMCOM Sustainment Directorate, said James Rupkalvis, MOTSU installation manager.
“The planning team provided outstanding support to MOTSU during this process, and our outstanding partnership with our utilities privatization contractor, and the work they’ve done on the terminal, contributed to the successful accomplishment of the BSE at MOTSU,” Rupkalvis said.
IMCOM Sustainment Director Jason Condrey said MOTSU’s Black Start Exercise showcased exceptional installation readiness.
“Their efforts are a case study for other installations,” Condrey said.
MOTSU’s Black Start Exercise, which ran from 0400 to 1300, was led by the terminal’s Directorate of Public Works, specifically the MOTSU energy manager, who had the lead on exercise planning and execution, Rupkalvis said.
Most of the coordination with Duke Energy, the local power company that supplies MOTSU, was done by the terminal’s utility privatization contractor, Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation.
Planning meetings began in December 2024 and included the U.S. Army Materiel Command, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, and ID-S, Rupkalvis said.
Switching plan developed
On the day of the exercise, the MOTSU team, BEMC contractors and observers from USACE, AMC, IMCOM and ID-S assembled at 0330 for a quick huddle before the exercise began.
“The BEMC team had personnel at multiple locations on and off the terminal to ensure the switching plan developed during planning was executed smoothly and without incident, “Rupkalvis said. “Once the switching plan was complete, the MOTSU microgrid generator started without issue and assumed the electrical load of the installation.
“During the initial phase of the exercise, MOTSU was able to increase the load by illuminating additional mission lighting across the terminal in order to stress the microgrid. There were minimal issues across the terminal, and the microgrid ran until 1200.
“In addition to the microgrid, MOTSU also has 12 stand-alone, building-tied generators which were started and exercised between 1200-1300, as the final requirement of the exercise,” he said.
Rupkalvis credited the exercise’s positive outcome to extensive advance planning and MOTSU’s “exceptional partnership” with Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation, its utilities privatization contractor.
“MOTSU is 21 years into the 50-year privatization contract, and BEMC has been an outstanding member of the team,” Rupkalvis said.
“BEMC built a solar array for MOTSU in 2017 and constructed the 1MW microgrid generator in 2020. In addition, BEMC provides backup power through a separate substation on the installation in case of a power outage by Duke Energy. BEMC is also currently in the process of performing a $2 million upgrade to the microgrid in order to better tie in the solar array to support the peak electrical load on the installation.”
Rupkalvis said there were several lessons learned from the BSE.
“The most important lesson is that communications are critical, and backup power/uninterruptible power supplies, or UPS, for our primary communications tower were necessary,” he said.
“In addition, we identified backup power/UPS were required in multiple other locations to account for the small time gap between loss of power and the microgrid starting and assuming the load for the terminal.
“Finally, we identified issues with our lighting control system on the terminal that will require an upgrade in the system and software,” he said.
Community relationships praised
There are 280 military and civilian personnel assigned to MOTSU, as well as approximately 90 contractors working on the terminal on any given day, Rupkalvis said.
“Since some of the MOTSU personnel are police, security and firefighters working shift work, I would estimate 275 total -- military, civilian and contractors-- were involved in the exercise,” he said.
Condrey said the installation’s collaboration with the local power company “highlighted the power of well-established community relationships that enable readiness and directly support Army lethality.”
MOTSU is a component command of the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, or SDDC, which is both a major subordinate command of U.S. Army Materiel Command and the Army Service Component Command to U.S. Transportation Command.
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2025 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 548170 |
| Location: | NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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