CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — The hum of generators filled the air as Camp Humphreys plunged key facilities into darkness, April 1.
It wasn’t an emergency or an April Fools’ Day prank, but a carefully choreographed drill designed to test the installation’s ability to maintain operations during a loss of electricity.
The eight-hour Black Start Exercise was no small feat. Power was deliberately cut to select facilities, forcing backup generators to kick in and some personnel to relocate to continue their missions. The exercise tested the installation’s energy infrastructure, the interdependence of critical systems, and the ability of units to adapt under emergency conditions.
“Our primary objective is power resiliency and mission readiness,” said Jay Jung, an electrical engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the team lead for the exercise. “It’s about identifying how to support families and the mission when we lose power.”
The Black Start Exercise included a series of planned outages at key facilities. Observers from the Power Reliability Enhancement Program team monitored the process to assess the installation’s ability to systematically shut down and reenergize its systems. Jung also highlighted the critical support provided by the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys team and the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power).
“We tested the interdependency of our facilities, including communications and other systems that could be impacted by a power outage,” said Jim Imhoff, a program analyst from Headquarters Installation Management Command. “Testing under controlled conditions ensures that if an incident happens, we can remain resilient and continue the mission.”
The Directorate of Public Works was divided into several teams responsible for cutting power to select facilities for up to eight hours before restoring it. During that time, backup generators provided electricity to key facilities, while others remained without power, requiring some workers to relocate as part of the exercise, Jung said.
“Although this wasn’t a graded exercise,” Jung said, “this was an exemplary display of DPW’s coordinated efforts.”
To minimize the impact on the community, certain facilities were exempt from the power shutdown, including family housing, barracks, the commissary, the exchange, and select Family and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation facilities such as the Child Development Center.
The DPW Base Operation Command Center served as the hub for the exercise, where the team managed operations by monitoring power distribution and fielding calls. With the exercise complete, the installation will address issues identified during the drill to further improve its energy resilience.
“It was a team effort across DPW, working for weeks to refine our processes and ensure we were ready,” said Jaewon Kim, operations and maintenance division chief, Directorate of Public Works, U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys. “I’m really proud of our team and all those involved.”