MEA mulls value of power line support

PALMER — Why does the state need to build a new power line through the Mat-Su Borough and what does that mean for the Matanuska Electric Association?

That’s what the electric cooperative’s board met to discuss this week with the team building the line.

The best route for the line, said consultant Delbert LaRue, who is heading the project funded by the Alaska Energy Authority, would be to run it parallel to MEA’s existing line between Knik-Goose Bay Road and Willow.

A new line would allow utilities in the south — Chugach Electric Association and Anchorage Municipal Light and Power — to send 230-kilovolt power all the way to customers in Fairbanks. Currently, they can only send 138 kilovolts through the line because the last 25 miles, those between Willow and Knik-Goose Bay Road, aren’t able to handle more than that.

MEA board members are asking numerous questions about the project, all directed toward figuring out why MEA should endorse such a line.

“What are the three best reasons for MEA to carry the banner?” asked MEA Board Member Peter Burchell.

LaRue said a line like this makes large-scale power plants much more feasible and the state is looking at a number of possibilities for large-scale power generation.

“One of these big facilities is going to happen,” LaRue said. “Let’s get on board and be a part of it.”

The underlying message was one of cooperation. Jim Posey, general manager of ML&P, summed up a lot of the feeling among the state’s utilities in the wake of statements from Gov. Sarah Palin urging cooperation among utilities in Alaska’s Railbelt.

“The governor said if we all work together, there’s money,” Posey said, noting that potentially up to $21 billion is on the table. “The feeding trough is only open for those who show up.”

MEA Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock pointed to a history of trouble with the Alaska Energy Authority, most notably at budget time for the Alaska Legislature. In 2005 and 2006, Babcock said, AEA was in favor of MEA’s request for money to build a line to take care of its needs if the line to Fairbanks goes to 230 kilovolts. In 2007, AEA was neutral. In 2008, the Alaska Energy Authority opposed MEA’s budget request.

“How should the Matanuska Electric Association view your call for cooperation?” Babcock asked AEA representative Jim Strandberg.

“There’s been major changes in the energy authority,” Strandberg said. “All I can say is my direction has been to carry the project forward in a cooperative fashion.”