Juneau, Alaska-Area Hydroelectric Power May Be Shared with Smaller Communities
Alaska Journal of Commerce, Anchorage --May 30
There are immense mountains and deep fjords in Southeast Alaska, and it rains a lot. Steep mountain valleys and high-elevation lakes in the region are ideal sites for generation of clean and renewable hydroelectric power.
But in smaller outlying communities, villages like Hoonah and Kake, power is
still generated with diesel generators. With oil prices at record highs, the
cost of power in these places is going through the roof.
An ambitious $316 million plan now is being put forth to connect most
Southeast communities into a regional power grid so the benefits of less
expensive hydroelectric power can be shared.
Dave Carlson, coordinator of the project for its sponsor, the Southeast
Conference, said the plan took another step forward May 10, when communities in
the region agreed to form a power generation and transmission cooperative.
Construction should begin this summer on the first increment of the grid,
Carlson said. This is a five-mile overhead transmission line on northern
Admiralty Island that will eventually connect the Greens Creek Mine on the
island to Juneau and its source of hydroelectric power at Snettisham, south of
the capital city.
The Denali Commission, a federal-state coordinating agency, recently released
funds for the five-mile transmission line. Eventually that transmission line
will be extended to Hoonah, on northern Chichagof Island, Carlson said.
The Southeast Intertie Project has been in the works since 1997, when the
conference formed a working group to push for a regional power grid. The
Southeast Conference is the regional economic development association. The
project is needed because without affordable power, industrial or commercial
projects like fish processing plants may not be feasible in many small outlying
communities in the region, Carlson said.
In Juneau, residential electric rates are 10 cents per kilowatt hour -- some
of the lowest in the state -- thanks to access to hydro power. But in Hoonah,
even before the recent hike in oil prices, electric rates from diesel generators
were above 30 cents per kilowatt hour. With the state Power Cost Equalization
subsidy, those rates drop to 20 cents, still twice the amount paid in Juneau. In
Gustavus, in northern Southeast, local power costs are more than 50 cents per
kilowatt hour.
The regional intertie has had the support of federal agencies for several
years, Carlson said. Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural
Development agency contributed $100,000 to fund engineering and economic
analyses for the project.
The federal agency has just announced another $50,000 grant to fund the
formation of the cooperative, Carlson said. The cooperative will be formed by
this summer, he said, creating a formal entity to own and develop the project.
A substantial amount of work has been done on the interties. Acres
International was retained in 1997 to perform a technical feasibility study of
an intertie system connecting communities in the region, and in 2003 the
Southeast Conference Intertie Committee hired D. Hittle & Associates to do
an engineering and economic analysis. The study has now been completed.
The study recommended a phased project that would first connect Juneau, now
served by the Snettisham hydroelectric project, to the Greens Creek Mine on
northern Admiralty Island and eventually the small community of Hoonah, on
Chichagof Island west of Admiralty. The cost for this is estimated at $41
million.
The project would allow Hoonah and Greens Creek Mining Co. to put their
diesel-fueled generators on stand-by and receive hydroelectric power via Juneau
from Snettisham.
Greens Creek Mine now burns 5 million gallons of diesel fuel a year to
generate power for mining operations. Some 400,000 gallons of diesel fuel are
used annually in Hoonah to supply power and heat to 860 residents in 435 homes,
according to information published in the Alaska Energy Policy Task Force's
final report.
In a separate $23 million project, the village of Kake would be connected to
Petersburg, which is already connected with nearby Wrangell. Wrangell and
Petersburg are now served by the Lake Tyee hydroelectric project.
A separate project to connect Lake Tyee with Ketchikan and the Swan Lake
hydroelectric plant is being pursued by the Four-Dam Pool Power Agency, a power
generation cooperative owned by four coastal municipalities. Lake Tyee has
surplus generation capacity, which is needed in Ketchikan where the Swan Lake
hydro plant is at capacity.
If this segment is built, an additional $23 million intertie could supply
hydro power to a mining project under exploration on Woewodski Island. This
segment offers the potential for an eventual connection with Sitka to the west
and could tie in with the planned Juneau-Hoonah intertie in the future.
Carlson said an ideal scenario would be for large industrial electric
consumers, such as mines like Greens Creek or the potential mine on Woewodski
Island, to help defray the cost of power to adjacent communities.
Future phases of the long-term plan would see Hoonah connected to Gustavus,
and Juneau connected with Haines in northern Southeast, Carlson said.
If the entire project is built, it would involve 203 miles of submarine cable
and 212 miles of transmission lines built on land, according to information in
the Alaska Energy Policy Task Force report.
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