MEA part of agreement to create Railbelt Reliability Council

WASILLA — Matanuska Electric Association is one of six utilities signatories on a Memorandum of Understanding to create the Railbelt Reliability Council. The RRC will begin accepting applications on January 3 of 2020 for the 12-member board to define and enforce reliability standards and study more effective ways for Railbelt electric systems to reduce fuel costs.

“MEA would like to thank the utility and non-utility partners who were part of this collaborative process,” said MEA CEO Tony Izzo. “The agreement represents an opportunity to work together in new ways to ensure our interconnected electric system can meet the evolving needs of the region’s members, businesses and communities.”

Signatory organizations joining MEA are Municipal Light and Power and Chugach Electric Association in Anchorage, the Homer Electric Association, Seward Electric and the Golden Valley Electric Association powering the Fairbanks area. The complex process focuses all utilities around one singular solution.

The work in 2020 will be to stand up the organization that will intertwine all of the different utility providers that will become a part of the RRC. The MOU between the six railbelt utilities will undertake managing Alaska’s largest interconnected grid and meets the requirements that were established in 2015 by a letter from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska stating a need for reform in the Railbelt.

The 12-member board will be filled with six non-utility seats. Non-utility members will include two independent power producers, two members from the Alaska Energy Authority, and two unaffiliated independent members. The RCA and state agency for Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy will each have an ex-officio non-voting member as well. An implementation committee is expected to be formed by April of 2020 and have their work completed by the end of next year.

The specific implementation planning and founding documents will be produced by the board in 2020.

The organization itself will create common standards and enforcement mechanism for reliability of power. Contrary to power producers in the Lower 48, the systems in Alaska were built as needed and do not feature redundancies found elsewhere. Without these redundancies, small problems that arise can have an effect on the system as a whole. With fewer ratepayers in Alaska than the Lower 48 to spread costs to, organizations like MEA are constantly battling reliability.

“It took us till now to find something that will really fit for us,” said MEA Director of External Affairs Julie Estey.

The paradigm shift for Alaskan power producers has been an active discussion for the last four years since the legislature recognized the need for an interconnected railbelt system. Including other voices within that organization such as independent power producers will add to the overall quality, but increase the amount of time to move forward. MEA currently serves 53,000 members.