Arctic 'gas by wire': generating power for rural Alaska.

• Author: Bradner, Mike
• Position: OIL & GAS

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For years, Alaskans have been trying to figure ways to tap the huge natural gas energy resources known on the North Slope. The oil resource there is being produced, of course, and is being shipped to Lower 48 markets through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. However, the gas is still largely untapped, although some of it is being used to help produce more oil, when gas produced along with the oil is injected back underground to repressure the oil reservoir.

There are hopes that a large-diameter natural gas pipeline will be built someday to carry the North Slope gas to markets outside Alaska, and that Alaskans could benefit from this because gas to be used locally can ride inexpensively through the big pipeline to off-take points that serve Alaska communities. But nothing has come yet of many plans to build a gas pipeline over the years. The latest plan is a large pipeline to a natural gas liquefaction (LNG) project at a south Alaska port. But it is not yet known whether this is feasible, and in any event its completion would be more than a decade away.

Meanwhile, Alaskans are dealing with serious energy issues and no way to tap the gas resource on the Slope. Energy costs are now a very serious issue in Interior Alaska because most home and building heating is done with oil, and most power is generated with oil. There are similar problems in small, outlying rural villages. In Anchorage, natural gas is less expensive but supplies are running out. Ironically, gas will have to be imported to the region as LNG or compressed natural gas by 2015.

Two efforts are under way as stop-gap measures until a large pipeline is built, if one is built. These include a short-term plan to truck LNG from a small plant on the North Slope to Fairbanks where the LNG would be regasified and used for power generation and space heating in some parts of the community. LNG trucking is still in the study phase, however, and a decision by Golden Valley Electric Association, which is leading the project, is expected in 2013.

For the medium-term, a state corporation, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., is working on plans for a 24-inch gas pipeline to the Slope that could be built before the big pipeline is built, or instead of one if the big line is never built. A small pipeline is not the optimal solution but as a fall-back plan it would work. The 24-inch pipeline is at the early conceptual engineering stage and is awaiting more funds from the State Legislature before proceeding with more detailed engineering.

Wired Gas

A new idea, or rather an old idea refashioned, has now surfaced for tapping the North Slope gas resource. Absent a gas pipeline, the idea is "gas by wire," or electricity generated on the North Slope in a large power plant and moved south through a direct current high voltage transmission...