Satoru Itahashi, left, an electrical power dispatcher foreman, and Eli Craft, chief of operations and maintenance for U.S. Army Garrison Japan’s Directorate of Public Works, participate in the “Black Start” exercise at Camp Zama, Japan, July 2, 2024. The exercise tested the installation’s energy resilience by having backup systems kick in during the power outage drill. (Photo Credit: Sean Kimmons)
CAMP ZAMA, Japan – U.S. Army Garrison Japan personnel tested for the first time the energy resilience of the entire installation here July 2 by having backup systems kick in during a power outage drill.
Eli Craft, chief of operations and maintenance for the garrison’s Directorate of Public Works, and other employees closely monitored the situation, as alerts and calls came in notifying employees of when more power was needed at a specific site.
“The point of the exercise is to try to be as realistic as possible in the event that we lost power,” he said, “or we had some catastrophic event like an earthquake, typhoon or even a potential cyberattack on the local power grid and resources were scarce and we needed to be self-sustaining.”
Craft said the exercise, known as “Black Start,” took months of planning with major stakeholders and tenant organizations to ensure it would not drastically affect critical operations, such as aviation and medical missions and cold food storage.
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From left, Maj. Michael Clark and Sgt. 1st Class Jimmie Gilchrist, both assigned to U.S. Army Garrison Japan’s Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, work in the garrison’s Emergency Operations Center July 2, 2024, during “Black Start,” an exercise meant to test the energy resilience of Camp Zama by having the installation’s backup systems kick in during a power outage drill. (Photo Credit: Dustin Perry)
The exercise is a congressional mandate that requires all Department of Defense installations to test their ability to operate without power in an emergency.
The value of conducting such a wide-scale drill can identify the strengths and vulnerabilities in electric power systems so they can be improved.
“It’s been a difficult task for the last several months to prepare for,” Craft said, “but I hope we’re going to feel the benefits of this for a long time to come.”
Satoru Itahashi, an electrical power dispatcher foreman at DPW, and his team shifted power to and from the outside electric power company to the standby energy generation systems on the installation.
“It is very meaningful for us, as well as our users, to experience a power outage, an incident that we do not often experience,” Itahashi said. “By carrying out such exercises, we can become aware of various problems that would not normally be visible.
“And I think this has the added benefit of evaluating our initial response when a power outage really does occur,” he added.
Itahashi said the exercise was able to effectively test the installation’s electrical systems to be able to prioritize future modernization efforts.
Craft also said evaluators during the exercise helped educate them on ways to compete for additional funding to upgrade electric power systems.
“That was one of the things we learned just meeting with the evaluation team and going over some of those opportunities going forward,” he said.
Another benefit of the exercise was better administrative oversight of the maintenance and testing that occurs on electric power equipment.
Craft said that DPW has built a good relationship with the Logistics Readiness Center – Honshu over the past year to share maintenance records with each other.
DPW can then provide those details to the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security for it to track and inform higher commands when required.
“It’s a great exercise for us to not only test our resiliency but to get to know our partners across the installation and how we work together,” Craft said.
Robert Trau-Massey, the garrison’s emergency manager, said training exercises like these are also vital for Soldiers, families and civilians to uphold readiness and preparedness for emergencies.
“Ongoing training not only hones skills but also instills confidence and the ability to respond and recover efficiently during crisis situations,” he said.
The exercise had proactive accountability measures, such as employees notifying leadership of their status during it, that may help expedite recovery efforts if a real-world incident were to occur.
“By emphasizing personnel accountability and readiness through training and exercises,” Trau-Massey said, “Camp Zama strengthens its resilience and capacity to effectively manage emergencies, safeguarding the well-being of its community members in challenging situations.”
Craft also credited the DPW teams for providing continuity of operations, especially during the frequent turnover of their American counterparts.
“As [Army civilians] move in and out of key positions, local employees really do a good job of maintaining our equipment,” he said.
“Itahashi’s team is great, and I’ve learned a lot from him,” he added. “I know that I can count on him and his team just like I can count on all members of the community to feed me accurate information.”
