Will we keep the lights on?

Covering hundreds of miles of transmission lines and paralleling the railroad, the Alaska Railbelt connects Fairbanks to the Kenai Peninsula through some of the most daunting terrain in the country.

Much of the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure is antiquated and must be expanded or enhanced to the tune of roughly $15 billion. Add to this mixture the dwindling supply of gas in Cook Inlet and alarm bells should be going off in your head.

Isolated from the rest of the country, the Railbelt’s peak load of all six utilities is 870 megawatts. To put this in perspective, many coal-powered generating facilities in the Lower 48 produce around 900 MW per plant. Comparatively speaking, we are a small operation, but to Alaskans along the Railbelt, it’s out only reliable source of heat and light. Without funding to build or upgrade, the bright lights in our future may begin to dim.

In 1986, the Alaska Legislature created the Railbelt Energy Fund with $285 million in its coffers with the intent of addressing aging infrastructure. With $60 million left and no upgrade or expansion to date, we are at a critical juncture in providing reliable power.

The Railbelt general managers’ and CEOs’ message to the governor and the Legislature has been simple: The cost of upgrading the Railbelt’s transmission lines and generation is far greater than one utility can take on — many billions of dollars short. That message is finally being heard.

A recently developed Regional Integrated Resource Plan (RIRP) has just been published for the Railbelt region that includes MEA, Municipal Light & Power, Chugach Electric Association, Golden Valley Electric Association, Homer Electric Association and the city of Seward electric system.

The RIRP lays out a clear economic picture of fuel supplies, power generation and transmission costs. Underpinning the financing for the RIRP would be passage of the House Bill (HB182) or Senate Bill (SB 144) referred to as GRETC (Greater Railbelt Energy and Transmission Corp.).

This bill now before the Legislature would allow Railbelt utilities to form a corporation that could collectively provide wholesale power to public utilities, build new G&T assets, buy fuel supplies, develop operating standards and have the ability to accept state aid. Collectively combining assets would yield greater flexibility in securing financing to build the mega-projects desperately needed for our future.

GRETC would be the entity charged with developing and operating the integrated energy, generation and transmission system.

The RIRP projects for the system were selected and prioritized to identify those needed immediately to maintain current levels of service and provide continuous reliable service for the future throughout the Railbelt. The RIRP plan also schedules what, when and where to build based on available fuel and energy supplies and includes renewable energy projects while offering a minimum long-run cost to rate payers.

Transmission projects were chosen to connect new generation and upgrade and rebuild parts of the grid. Out of 16 projects, the top five are Soldotna to Quartz Creek, Quartz Creek to University, Douglas to Teeland and Lake Lorraine to Douglas and Soldotna to University.

On the generation side the projects identified are Chugach Electric and ML&P South Anchorage gas plant, the Glacier Fork hydro, Nikiski wind power, Anchorage LM6000, Golden Valley Electric large gas plant, Susitna hydro and landfill generators.

The legislature asked the Railbelt utilities to come to them with a single message — which they did. The legislature asked for a plan — and they gave it. The population along Alaska’s Railbelt is roughly 360,000 with 30,000 businesses. Now let’s see what the legislature does for all these folks who are asking for help facing challenges of monumental proportions.

Joe Griffith is MEA general manager.