Fort McCoy supports Army Energy Action Month ideals in a variety of ways

October is Army Energy Action Month, and it’s a time to remember important ways to save energy, and more.

Dan Johnson with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Energy Branch said it’s a great time at targeting energy saving actions across the installation to see what “we can all do to reduce our energy consumption.”

Fort McCoy learned the importance of energy resilience when it joined many other Department of Defense and Army installations in testing its energy resiliency as it held a Black Start Exercise on Sept. 10.

The no-notice exercise began at 8:06 a.m. when the power to the installation was shut down and went on for eight hours. During the exercise, the Fort McCoy Installation Emergency Operations Center was active and activity during the power outage was managed throughout the day.

Facilities that have working generators were able to continue full operations. Other areas allowed for maximized teleworking for employees. Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services leaders said the installation security and emergency services coverage were not affected as the area remained fully secure and emergency personnel stood ready as needed.

Black Start is an energy resilience readiness exercise designed to test the installation’s emergency and standby energy generation systems, key infrastructure, and equipment, planning documents show. Garrison personnel learned from exercise outcomes about the infrastructure needs for crucial installation missions in the event of a power loss.

The Black Start exercise construct was designed following the Congressional mandate requiring Department of Defense services to test their ability to operate without power in an emergency, according to the Department of Defense Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience at https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/eer/cr/ie/exercises.html,

Black Start exercises are “real-world installation energy exercises in which the delivery of energy provided from off an installation is terminated before backup generation assets on the installation are turned on,” the website states. “These exercises determine the ability of the backup systems to start independently, transfer the load, and carry the load until energy from off the installation is restored.”

Fort McCoy also uses the idea to save and conserve energy with the use of goats to control invasive species on post.

Since 2023, hundreds of goats have been used combat invasive plant species at Fort McCoy, and they are very effective, said Wildlife Biologist Kevin Luepke with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

“It helps us save labor/equipment time, reduce costs, reduce pesticide usage, and hopefully give us better results,” Luepke said. “The goats are used in an integrated approach. I see our approach looking like this … — shred and mulch the invasive brush during the winter or fall, then allow the invasive brush to resprout the following growing season, introduce goats to the site during that same growing season to defoliate, and then treat with herbicides the following growing season after that.

“This puts additional stressor on the invasive shrubs multiple times,” Luepke said. “In essence this will make the herbicide treatments more effective because we will be dealing with already stressed plants.”

The 2024 theme of Army Energy Action Month is “Powering the Mission.” The U.S. Department of Energy’s theme for 2024 Energy Action Month in October is “Empowering the Energy Transition.”

“During … Energy Action Month and throughout the year, (the Federal Emergency Management Program) recommends using these steps and resources to raise awareness of energy- and water-saving possibilities and support agencies’ missions. … Plan the effort. … Design and implement. ... Evaluate and report results. … Sustain the effort.”

For years, Fort McCoy has been using different ways to not only save energy but also to produce energy through solar. According to the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works, solar energy systems are working throughout the installation.

Solar-power additions at Fort McCoy include pedestrian-crossing and stop signs with flashing LED lights. There’s also SolarWall-brand transpired solar collectors installed on buildings on post. There are also more than 70 latrines on the Fort McCoy Range Complex powered or heated by solar photovoltaic panels as well as other systems that require low energy intake.

Fort McCoy, for the last couple of years, has also been working with Xcel Energy on the process of changing the electrical grid on post from a Delta Electrical System to a Wye Electrical System, Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works officials said.

Wye is a three-phase electrical system that uses a wire for each electrical leg and a separate neutral wire. Delta is also a three-phase but uses one of the legs as the neutral, so it only has three wires.

Brandon Gronau, also with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Energy Branch, said in 2023 said the change is good for the installation, especially for the future.

“Fort McCoy’s part in this is resiliency,” Gronau said. “Because Xcel is changing everything anyway, we decided that we wanted to move all of our overhead electrical that is inside the cantonment area underground as part of our move to making Fort McCoy more energy resilient. So, it just makes sense to do it all at the same time.”

Fort McCoy’s Directorate of Human Resources (DHR) also supports energy resilience with its bi-annual effort to hold a paper records shredding and recycling event to dispose of old documents on post.

“The records manager for Fort McCoy is responsible for the destruction of documents that have met their disposition that are in records holding,” said Administrative Services Division Chief Trudy Ward with DHR, who is also the installation records manager. “The destruction (shredding) of documents occurs twice a year — once in spring and once in fall.”

Michael L. Miller, Water and Waste Branch chief with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works, oversees the installation recycling program. He said recycling paper like the effort completed with the records is good in many ways.

“Scrap paper can be collected, recycled, processed into new paper in a few months,” Miller said in a past news article. “It also considers the reduction of available landfill space through diversion. In the 30-plus years that I have been doing this, I’ve notice recycling going from unpleasant choir, to acceptance, to standard practice. It’s the best example of ecological culture change.”

Whether it’s energy resilience exercises, using goats to save on energy costs, recycling efforts, or energy grid upgrades, Fort McCoy will continue to do its part to conserve and save energy, Johnson said.

Learn more about Energy Action Month with the Department of Energy by visiting https://www.energy.gov/femp/national-clean-energy-action-month. Learn more about the Army’s Energy Action Month efforts by visiting https://www.asaie.army.mil/energy_sustainability_energy_action_month.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”

Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”