MEA eyes Eklutna land for new plant

PALMER — The Matanuska Electric Association has made a couple of moves toward building power plants in the Valley.

The utility’s board of directors has authorized spending $2.58 million to purchase 70 acres of land in the Eklutna area.

MEA Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock said the site is currently owned by Eklutna Inc., and is where MEA plans to build a 130-megawatt natural-gas fired power plant.

Babcock said the site has a lot of what MEA needs for a power plant: abundant water, easy access to a natural gas line, and four big power lines — two zoing north and two going south.

“It’s right in the middle of our service area,” he said.

Another plus — it’s in Anchorage. Which means MEA doesn’t have to go through the permitting process in the Mat-Su Borough, which Babcock said is more costly and difficult than Anchorage’s process.

The permitting process has been a bone of contention between MEA and the borough since the permitting process was enacted mostly in reaction to MEA’s plans to build two power plants — one coal-fired, the other natural-gas-fired. The coal plant was eventually shelved.

Also recently, MEA’s board of directors unanimously approved a resolution asking the borough to sell it some land near Hollywood Road.

“The borough had written MEA about this saying if you’re still interested in this we want your board to take another vote,” Babcock said.

The purchase of the land is a process begun several years back when the Borough Assembly approved selling MEA the land but their approval was vetoed by then-mayor Tim Anderson.

Though MEA would like the land, Babcock said it’s more for future plans than for anything immediate.

“We don’t need two plants and a natural gas pipeline doesn’t go by Hollywood yet,” he said. “It is still a very good site with respect to its connection to our transmission lines.”

Rates dip

MEA’s rates just went up and now they’re going back down again.

Slightly.

The utility adjusts its rates periodically and this go-round found that a 1.68 percent drop in rates was warranted. That translates to about $1.30 for the average household per month.

“The company is collecting enough money and running efficiently enough that we are collecting slightly more money than we need to,” Babcock said.

Next quarter, he said, MEA may well look at its books and find they need to erase that decrease.

In January, MEA announced that its power supplier, Chugach Electric Association, had raised rates 30 percent, leading to a hike for the average customer of over $26 per month.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.